Wnt signaling molecules are associated with obesity, hyperlipidemia, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Here, we show that two Wnt proteins, WNT3a and WNT4, are specifically secreted by skeletal muscle and adipose tissue during the development of insulin resistance and play an important role in cross-talk between insulin-resistant tissues and pancreatic beta cells. The activation of Frizzled receptor a...

Marrow mesenchymal stem cells are pluripotent progenitors that can differentiate into bone, cartilage, muscle, and fat cells. Wnt signaling has been implicated in regulating osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. Here, we analyzed the gene expression profile of mesenchymal stem cells that were stimulated with Wnt3A. Among the 220 genes whose expression was significantly changed b...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, non‑coding, endogenous RNAs that are important in tumor cell biological processes as they regulate gene expression. miR-195 has been demonstrated to be a tumor repressor in numerous types of human cancer. However, the mechanism by which miR‑195 suppresses tumor development remains to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of m...

The tumor suppressor protein ELL-associated factor 2 (Eaf2) serves an important role in lens development and maturation; however, its role in oxidative stress‑induced cataract formation remains unclear. In the present study, an in vitro apoptosis model was constructed by treating HLE‑B3 cells with 50 µM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and was confirmed by flow cytometry. Subsequently, overexpression ...

Wnt signalling proteins are essential for culture of human organ stem cells in organoids, but most Wnt protein formulations are poorly active in serum-free media. Here we show that purified Wnt3a protein is ineffective because it rapidly loses activity in culture media due to its hydrophobic nature, and its solubilization requires a detergent, CHAPS (3-[(3-cholamidopropyl) dimethylammonio]-1-pr...

Osteogenic differentiation from mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPCs) are initiated and regulated by a cascade of signaling events. Either Wnt/β-catenin or estrogen signaling pathway has been shown to play an important role in regulating skeletal development and maintaining adult tissue homeostasis. Here, we investigate the potential crosstalk and synergy of these two signaling pathways in regula...

Wnt signaling is known to be required for the normal development of the vertebrate midbrain and hindbrain, but genetic loss of function analyses in the mouse and zebrafish yield differing results regarding the relative importance of specific Wnt loci. In the zebrafish, Wnt1 and Wnt10b functionally overlap in their control of gene expression in the ventral midbrain-hindbrain boundary (MHB), but ...

BACKGROUND Wnt3a stimulates cellular trafficking of key signaling elements (e.g., Axin, Dishevelled-2, beta-catenin, and glycogen synthase kinase-3beta) and primitive endoderm formation in mouse F9 embryonic teratocarcinoma cells. RESULTS The role of phosphoprotein phosphatase-2A in signaling of the Wnt/beta-catenin/Lef-Tcf-sensitive gene activation pathway was investigated. Wnt3a action atte...

PURPOSE Future pharmacologic treatment of strabismus may be optimized if drugs that are less potentially toxic to patients can be developed. Prior studies have shown that direct injection of extraocular muscles (EOMs) with insulin growth factor or fibroblast growth factor results in significant increases in the generation of EOM force. The purpose of this study was to examine the morphometric a...

Previously we reported that Wnt3a-dependent neurite outgrowth in Ewing sarcoma family tumor cell lines was mediated by Frizzled3, Dishevelled (Dvl), and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (Endo, Y., Beauchamp, E., Woods, D., Taylor, W. G., Toretsky, J. A., Uren, A., and Rubin, J. S. (2008) Mol. Cell. Biol. 28, 2368-2379). Subsequently, we observed that Dvl2/3 phosphorylation correlated with neurite outgro...