Deregulation of the sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway has been implicated in several cancers but has not been explored in T-cell lymphomas. Here, we report that the SHH/GLI1 signaling pathway is activated in anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). We show that SHH, but not its transcriptional effector GLI1, is amplified in ALK+ ALCL tumors and cell ...

Wnt and Shh signaling pathways are critical for the development and maturation of many epithelial tissues. Both pathways have roles in stem cell maintenance, tissue development, and tumorigenesis. However, linkage between these pathways in mammalian systems had not been well established. Here, we report that Shh expression in fungiform papillae and formation of normal mature fungiform papillae ...

Dispatched 1 (Disp1) encodes a twelve transmembrane domain protein that is required for long-range sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling. Inhibition of Disp1 function, both by RNAi or dominant-negative constructs, prevents secretion and results in the accumulation of Shh in source cells. Measuring the Shh response in neuralized embryoid bodies (EBs) derived from embryonic stem (ES) cells, with or with...

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is critical for patterning and growth during mammalian embryogenesis. Transcriptional profiling identified Growth-arrest-specific 1 (Gas1) as a general negative target of Shh signaling. Data presented here define Gas1 as a novel positive component of the Shh signaling cascade. Removal of Gas1 results in a Shh dose-dependent loss of cell identities in the ventral neural t...

Enteric neural crest cells (NCCs) migrate and colonize the entire gut and proliferate and differentiate into neurons and glia of the enteric nervous system in vertebrate embryos. We have investigated the mitogenic and morphogenic functions of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) on enteric NCCs in cell and organ culture. Enteric NCCs expressed Shh receptor Patched and transcripts encoding the Shh signal transd...

The secreted protein Sonic hedgehog (Shh) and its transmembrane receptor Patched (Ptc) control a major signal transduction pathway in early vertebrate limb development. Ligand-free Ptc interacts with the transmembrane protein Smoothened (Smo) and blocks expression of Smo-controlled genes including ptc. Ligand-bound Ptc removes the block and leads to further expression of ptc, which in turn rest...

Sterol synthesis is required for Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signal transduction. Errors in Shh signal transduction play important roles in the formation of human tumors, including medulloblastoma (MB). It is not clear which products of sterol synthesis are necessary for Shh signal transduction or how they act. Here we show that cholesterol or specific oxysterols are the critical products of sterol sy...

Thyroid hormone is important for development and plasticity in the immature and adult mammalian brain. Several thyroid hormone-responsive genes are regulated during specific developmental time windows, with relatively few influenced across the lifespan. We provide novel evidence that thyroid hormone regulates expression of the key developmental morphogen sonic hedgehog (Shh), and its coreceptor...

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling is important in the growth and differentiation of many cell types and recently has been reported to play a role in T cell development in the thymus. This prompted us to investigate whether or not Shh contributes to the clonal expansion of peripheral CD4(+) T cells. In this study, we demonstrate that Shh and other components of the signaling pathway patched, smooth...

Sonic hedgehog (Shh), an axis-determining secreted protein, is expressed during early vertebrate embryogenesis in the notochord and ventral neural tube. In this site it plays a role in the phenotypic specification of ventral neurons along the length of the CNS. For example, Shh induces the differentiation of motor neurons in the spinal cord and dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. Shh expressi...