backgroundalthough exclusive breastfeeding (ebf) is highly emphasized by the experts, nulliparous women do not adhere to this behavior at a desirable level. since it seems that mothers’ beliefs and values play an important role in their adherence to these behaviors, the present study, aimed to perform a careful analysis of the behavior and evaluation of factors associated with the ebf in nullip...

Based on earlier gene expression and chromatin array data, we identified the protein, dishevelled (DVL)-2, as being regulated in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain reward region, in the mouse social defeat model of depression. Here, we validate these findings by showing that DVL2 mRNA and protein levels are downregulated in NAc of mice susceptible to social defeat stress, effects not seen...

BACKGROUND Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is the optimal way to feed children during their first six months of life, having important benefits for them and their mothers. However, the proportion of Ecuadorian mothers who continue to exclusively breastfeed their infants during the recommended six-month period has been reported to remain below the World Health Organization's goal set of 90 %. Litt...

BACKGROUND Globally, an estimated 6.3 million children under-five years of age died in the year 2013. To reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality of infants, Ethiopia adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first six months of life. The objective of this study was to assess factors associated with EBF practices among mothers who ha...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a relatively uncommon and yet incurable tumor. The pathogenesis of mesothelioma remains poorly understood. This study evaluated the role of Wnt signaling in mesothelioma. Western blot analysis was conducted to confirm the expression of Dishevelled (Dvl) and cytosolic beta-catenin in matched autologous tissue samples (tumor and normal pleura), malignant pleural ...

BACKGROUND Despite growing evidence in support of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) among infants in the first 6 months of birth, the debate over the optimal duration of EBF continues. This study examines the effect of termination of EBF during the first 2, 4 and 6 months of birth on a set of adverse health and nutritional outcomes of infants. METHODS Three waves of Bangladesh Demographic and Hea...

In canonical Wnt signaling, Dishevelled (Dvl) is a critical cytoplasmic regulator that releases beta-catenin from degradation. Here, we find that Dvl and c-Jun form a complex with beta-catenin-T-cell factor 4 (TCF-4) on the promoter of Wnt target genes and regulate gene transcription. The complex forms via two interactions of nuclear Dvl with c-Jun and beta-catenin, respectively, both of which ...

In the Drosophila embryo dishevelled (dsh) function is required by target cells in order to respond to wingless (wg, the homolog of Wnt-1), demonstrating a role for dsh in Wnt signal transduction. We have isolated a mouse homolog of the Drosophila dsh segment polarity gene. The 695-amino-acid protein encoded by the mouse dishevelled gene (Dvl-1) shares 50% identity (65% similarity) with dsh. Si...

The transcription factors encoded by the E2A and early B cell factor ( EBF ) genes are required for the proper development of B lymphocytes. However, the absence of B lineage cells in E2A and EBF -deficient mice has made it difficult to determine the function or relationship between these proteins. We report the identification of a novel model system in which the role of E2A and EBF in the regu...

The dishevelled (dsh) gene family encodes cytoplasmic proteins that have been implicated in Wnt/Wingless (Wg) signaling. To demonstrate functional conservation of Dsh family proteins, two mouse homologs of Drosophila Dsh, Dvl-1 and Dvl-2, were biochemically characterized in mouse and Drosophila cell culture systems. We found that treatment with a soluble Wnt-3A leads to hyperphosphorylation of ...