Development of the metanephric kidney is an experimental model system to analyze interactions between mesenchymal and epithelial cells and mesenchymal-epithelial transition. To study the underlying genetic mechanisms we employed organ culture and differential display PCR to identify genes regulated upon induction of mesenchymal cells. One of the genes found encodes the secreted frizzled related...

In Xenopus, dorsal-ventral (D-V) patterning can self-regulate after embryo bisection. This is mediated by an extracellular network of proteins secreted by the dorsal and ventral centers of the gastrula. Different proteins of similar activity can be secreted at these two poles, but under opposite transcriptional control. Here we show that Crescent, a dorsal protein, can compensate for the loss o...

Secreted frizzled-related protein (sFRP)-3 is a negative regulator of Wnt signaling in human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). The present study investigated the effects sFRP-3 on osteogenic differentiation by assessing osteogenic gene expression in hMSCs in vitro and by examining bone regeneration in a rat bone defect model. sFRP-3 treatment induced osteogenic differentiation in hMSCs as determi...

BACKGROUND Wnt signaling is important in development and can also contribute to the initiation and progression of cancer. The Secreted Frizzled Related Proteins (SFRPs) constitute a family of Wnt modulators, crucial for controlling Wnt signaling. Here we investigate the expression and role of SFRP3 in melanoma. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We show that SFRP3 mRNA is down-regulated in malign...

Osteoarthritis is the fourth leading cause of disability affecting more than 300 million people around globe. In this disease, chondrocytes responsible for growth and maintenance articular joints start to deplete due rogue involvement phosphoinositide 3-kinase, protein kinase-B p38 mitogenactivated kinases. Presently, there are medications providing symptomatic treatment, however, they cannot t...

PURPOSE Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a soft tissue sarcoma associated with the skeletal muscle lineage. Of the two predominant subtypes, known as embryonal (eRMS) and alveolar (aRMS), aRMS has the poorer prognosis, with a five-year survival rate of <50%. The majority of aRMS tumors express the fusion protein PAX3-FOXO1. As PAX3-FOXO1 has proven chemically intractable, this study aims to identify t...

Malignant gliomas have a highly tumorigenic subpopulation, termed cancer stem cells (CSCs), that drives tumor formation and proliferation. CSCs possess inherent resistance mechanisms against radiation- and chemotherapy-induced cancer cell death, enabling them to survive and initiate tumor recurrence. We examined the effect of secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (sFRP4), a Wnt signaling antagoni...

Genetic studies have identified a high bone mass of phenotype in both human and mouse when canonical Wnt signaling is increased. Secreted frizzled related protein 1 (sFRP1) is one of several Wnt antagonists and among the loss-of-function mouse models in which 32-week-old mice exhibit a high bone mass phenotype. Here we show that impact fracture healing is enhanced in this mouse model of increas...