Mutations in the APC tumor suppressor gene are present in approximately 85% of colorectal tumors and are thought to contribute early in the process of tumorigenesis. The truncated protein resulting from most APC mutations can lead to elevated beta-catenin levels in colon tumor cells. APC and associated proteins thus form a beta-catenin regulatory complex, with axin playing a key role. Although ...

WNT signaling has been implicated in the regulation of hematopoietic stem cells and plays an important role during T-cell development in thymus. Here we investigated WNT pathway activation in childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) patients. To evaluate the potential role of WNT signaling in T-cell leukomogenesis, we performed expression analysis of key components of WNT pathway. ...

The incidence of thyroid cancer has recently experienced a rapid increase in China, and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) accounts for nearly 80% of human thyroid cancers. In the present study, the differential expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) and their target genes were identified in order to analyze the potential roles of miRNAs as biomarkers an...

Heart valve development proceeds through coordinated steps by which endocardial cushions (ECs) form thin, elongated and stratified valves. Wnt signaling and its canonical effector β-catenin are proposed to contribute to endocardial-to-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) through postnatal steps of valvulogenesis. However, genetic redundancy and lethality have made it challenging to define specific ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between AXIN2, CDH1 and IRF6 with oral clefts in a cohort from Latvia. MATERIAL AND METHODS 283 unrelated individuals, 93 born with isolated oral clefts and 190 individuals born without any structural abnormalities were evaluated. Cleft type and dental anomalies outside the cleft area were determined by clinical examination. Four SNPs were selected for th...

Recent studies have suggested that APC loss alone may be insufficient to promote aberrant Wnt/beta-catenin signalling. Our aim was to comprehensively characterize Wnt signalling components in a set of APC-associated familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) tumours. Sixty adenomas from six FAP patients with known pathogenic APC mutations were included. Somatic APC and KRAS mutations, beta-catenin im...

PURPOSE Metaplastic carcinomas are distinct invasive breast carcinomas with aberrant nonglandular differentiation, which may be spindle, squamous, or chondroid. The limited effective treatments result from the lack of knowledge of its molecular etiology. Given the role of the Wnt pathway in cell fate and in the development of breast cancer, we hypothesized that defects in this pathway may contr...

Wnt signaling regulates embryonic pattern formation and morphogenesis of most organs. Aberrations of regulation of Wnt signaling may lead to cancer. Here, we have used positional cloning to identify the causative mutation in a Finnish family in which severe permanent tooth agenesis (oligodontia) and colorectal neoplasia segregate with dominant inheritance. Eleven members of the family lacked at...