Little is known about signaling pathways, besides those of neurotrophic factors, that are operational in adult spiral ganglion neurons. In patients with sensorineural hearing loss, such pathways could eventually be targeted to stimulate and guide neurite outgrowth from the remnants of the spiral ganglion towards a cochlear implant, thereby improving the fidelity of sound transmission. To system...

Recent advances in the Wnt signaling field reveal new components, such as a G protein and an atypical receptor tyrosine kinase, and novel connections between known components. In addition, different subcellular localization of receptors may help to explain distinctions between canonical and noncanonical Wnt pathway activity.

The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway controls several biological processes throughout development and adult life. Dysregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling underlies a wide range of pathologies in animals and humans, including cancer in different tissues. In this review, we provide an update of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and the possible roles of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling in the biolog...

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of primary bone cancer, with peak incidences in adolescence and at age >60 years. This tumor has a very high propensity for local invasion and distant metastasis. Pulmonary metastasis is the most common mode of spread, occurring in about 80% of patients. Aggressive treatment with high-dose chemotherapy and surgery leads to cure in 60% to 70% of patients. How...

The Wnt family of secreted glycoproteins plays a critical role in developmental processes including axis patterning, cellular proliferation, planar cell polarity, cell migration, cell fate specification, and neuronal development. In adults, Wnt signaling is involved in tissue homeostasis, regeneration, and stem/progenitor cell function. Moreover, elevated or attenuated Wnt signaling is found in...

WNT signaling is involved in maintaining stem cells in an undifferentiated state; however, it is often unclear which WNTs and WNT receptors are mediating these activities. Here we examined the role of the WNT receptor FZD7 in maintaining human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in an undifferentiated and pluripotent state. FZD7 expression is significantly elevated in undifferentiated cells relative t...

Wnt proteins control diverse biological processes through β-catenin-dependent canonical signalling and β-catenin-independent non-canonical signalling. The mechanisms by which these signalling pathways are differentially triggered and controlled are not fully understood. Dishevelled (Dvl) is a scaffold protein that serves as the branch point of these pathways. Here, we show that cholesterol sele...

SNX27 is the only sorting nexin (SNX) that contains a PDZ domain, which interacts with PDZ-binding motif of target proteins to regulate the trafficking of these proteins. We here showed that SNX27 interacts with Frizzled (Fzd) receptors via PDZ domain interaction. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that Fzd7 can be internalized and associate with SNX27-containing endosomal membrane. In addi...

Background: Wnt molecules play a key role in growth, proliferation and development of some embryonic and adult organs as well as hematopoietic stem cells. Wnt signaling pathways are aberrantly activated in many tumor types, including solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Objective: To investigate the expression profile of a large number of Wnt genes in leukemic cells from Iranian patients ...