The Wnt/frizzled cell signaling pathway has been implicated in the determination of polarity in a number of systems, including the Drosophila retina. The vertebrate retina develops from an undifferentiated neuroepithelium into an organized and laminated structure that demonstrates a high degree of polarity at both the tissue and cellular levels. In the process of searching for molecules that ar...

Secreted Frizzled Related Proteins (Sfrps) are a family of secreted proteins that can bind both to Wnt ligands and Frizzled receptors, thereby modulating the Wnt signalling cascades. Recent studies have shown that Sfrps can also interact with Wnt unrelated molecules such as RANKL, a member of the tumor necrosis factor family, Tolloid metalloproteinases or integrin-fibronectin complexes. Alterat...

The use of short fiber reinforced polymers (SFRP) is increasing steadily in automotive and aerospace industry due to its mechanical properties and light weight. The mechanical and physical properties of SFRP depend on the geometrical characteristics of the reinforcing material. Under tensile stress various defects are induced in SFRP composites. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) is a non-destruct...

Carcinoid tumors are rare neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) that are increasing in incidence. Mutation and altered expression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling components have been described in many tumors but have not been well-studied in NETs. Here, we observed accumulation of β-catenin in the cytoplasm and/or nucleus in 25% of clinical NET tissues. By mutational analysis, the mutations of β-catenin (I35...

background: the potential of plants as a safe and eukaryotic systems, are considered for producing recombinant therapeutic human protein today; but the expression level of heterologous proteins is limited by the post-transcriptional gene silencing (ptgs) response in this new technology. the use of viral suppressors of gene silencing can prevent ptgs and improve transient expression level of for...

BACKGROUND Wnt signaling plays an important role in development and maintenance of many organs and tissues. The most-studied secreted Wnt inhibitors are sclerostin (SOST), Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK-1), and secreted frizzled related protein 1 (SFRP-1) which play important roles in bone turnover. The present study investigated the relationship between serum Wnt inhibitors and diseases with ...

Introduction: Astrocytes, the most abundant glia in the central nervous system, modulate neuronal survival and function. Astrocytic functions are mediated by synthesis and secretion of wide ranges of polypeptides through mechanism (s) poorly understood. Among these, TGFβs are synthesized and released by the astrocytes. In this study, the involvement of Wnt signaling pathway on the synthesi...

background: it has been reported that secreted frizzled-related protein-4 known as an antagonist of wnt signaling pathway plays a role in luteinization process of rodent granulosa cells. the purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to determine whether recombinant human secreted frizzled-related protein-4 (rhsfrp-4) could directly induce terminal differentiation of rat granulosa cells (gcs) and 2)...

Disruption of the Wnt pathway is thought to be crucial in the development of human cancer. Pathway inhibitory members of the secreted frizzled-related protein (SFRP) family were found to be downregulated due to epigenetic inactivation in various malignancies. To date, only SFRP1 has been studied in human breast cancer and we questioned whether other SFRP genes may be implicated in the pathogene...