BACKGROUND Canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling pathways modulate diverse cellular processes during embryogenesis and post-natally. Their deregulations have been implicated in cancer development and progression. Wnt signaling is essential for odontogenesis. The ameloblastoma is an odontogenic epithelial neoplasm of enamel organ origin. Altered expressions of Wnts-1, -2, -5a, and -10a are d...

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are known to induce the conversion of activated T cells into regulatory T cells in vitro. The marker CD69 is a target of canonical nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) signalling and is transiently expressed upon activation; however, stable CD69 expression defines cells with immunoregulatory properties. Given its enormous therapeutic potential, we explored the molecular ...

The mechanisms that regulate hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) fate decisions between proliferation and multilineage differentiation are unclear. Members of the Wnt family of ligands that activate the canonical Wnt signaling pathway, which utilizes beta-catenin to relay the signal, have been demonstrated to regulate HSC function. In this study, we examined the role of noncanonical Wnt signaling in ...

In both colon cancer and type 2 diabetes, metabolic changes induced by upregulation of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling and downregulation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR gamma) may help account for the frequent association of these two diseases. In both diseases, PPAR gamma is downregulated while the canonical Wnt/beta-catenin pathway is upregulated. In colon cancer, up...

How oocytes are transferred into an oviduct with a receptive environment remains poorly known. We found that glands of the Drosophila female reproductive tract, spermathecae and/or parovaria, are required for ovulation and to promote sperm storage. Reducing total secretory cell number by interferring with Notch signaling during development blocked ovulation. Knocking down expression after adult...

Articles in recent years have described two separate and distinct NF-kappaB activation pathways that result in the differential activation of p50- or p52-containing NF-kappaB complexes. Studies examining tumor-necrosis factor receptor-associated factors (TRAFs) have identified positive roles for TRAF2, TRAF5, and TRAF6, but not TRAF3, in canonical (p50-dependent) NF-kappaB activation. Conversel...

Wnt signaling has been classified as canonical Wnt/β-catenin-dependent or non-canonical planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway. Misregulation of either pathway is linked mainly to cancer or neural tube defects (NTDs), respectively. Both pathways seem to antagonize each other, and recent studies have implicated a number of molecular switches that activate one pathway while simultaneously inhibiting ...

Canonical Wnt/beta-catenin signaling regulates stem/progenitor cells and, when perturbed, induces many human cancers. A significant proportion of human breast cancer is associated with loss of secreted Wnt antagonists and mice expressing MMTV-Wnt1 and MMTV-DeltaN89beta-catenin develop mammary adenocarcinomas. Many studies have assumed these mouse models of breast cancer to be equivalent. Here w...

Cardiac fibrosis is a pathological process associated with the development of heart failure. TGF-? and WNT signaling have been implicated in pathogenesis cardiac fibrosis, however, little known about molecular cross-talk between these two pathways. The aim this study was to examine effect exogenous canonical WNT3a non-canonical WNT5a TGF-?-activated human fibroblasts. We found that induced ?-ca...

Like many other signalling pathways, the Wnt pathway is seen as part of a network that integrates extracellular information mediated by a variety of cell surface proteins to produce cell context-specific outputs. The identification of Frizzled as Wnt receptors (Bhanot et al, 1996) provided the essential link between extracellular Wnts and the intracellular components of Wnt signal transduction....