In this issue of Clinical Cancer Research , Gumz et al. report on the loss of secreted frizzled-related protein-1 (sFRP-1) in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC; ref. 1). sFRP-1 is a member of a family of proteins that bind Wnts and can inhibit Wnt signaling during embryonic development and in the adult homeostasis (2, 3). Inappropriate Wnt signaling is a well-established mechanism of oncogen...

Secreted frizzled related proteins (sFRP) are regulators of Wnt signaling pathways that play central roles in developmental processes and oncogenesis. Various sFRP genes have been cloned from different tissues and implicated in diverse biological activities. rFrp, the rat homologue of sFRP-4, was initially identified as being upregulated in mutant p53-induced cellular transformation. Here, we r...

The caudomedial margin of the medial pallium, known as the cortical hem, expresses several Wnt genes that have been shown to be crucial for cortical development. We examined the expression of members of the Frizzled (mFz) family of Wnt receptors and the Secreted Frizzled Related Protein (SFRP) family of Wnt inhibitors during telencephalic development. We found that mFz-5 and mFz-8 are specifica...

PURPOSE We hypothesized that combined methylation analysis of Wnt antagonist genes could serve as a panel of biomarkers for diagnosis, staging, and prognosis in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Samples (n = 62) of RCC and corresponding normal renal tissue (NRT) were analyzed using methylation-specific PCR for methylation of six Wnt antagonist genes (sFRP-1, sFRP-2, sFRP-4, sFRP...

Wnts are a family of secreted proteins involved in multiple developmental mechanisms during nervous system development, including cell proliferation, cell migration, axon guidance and specification of cell positional information. We report here the expression of sFRP-1 mRNA, encoding a putative inhibitor of Wnt, in the developing mouse neocortex during the entire period when neurons for the neo...

Wnt signaling regulates a wide range of developmental processes such as proliferation, cell migration, axon guidance, and cell fate determination. In this report, we studied the expression of secreted frizzled related protein-2 (SFRP-2), which codes for a putative Wnt inhibitor, in the developing nervous system. SFRP-2 is expressed in several discrete neuroepithelial domains, including the dien...

In diabetics, methylglyoxal (MG), a glucose-derived metabolite, plays a noxious role by inducing oxidative stress, which causes and exacerbates a series of complications including low-turnover osteoporosis. In the present study, while MG treatment of mouse bone marrow stroma-derived ST2 cells rapidly suppressed the expression of osteotrophic Wnt-targeted genes, including that of osteoprotegerin...

Introduction: Astrocytes, the most abundant glia in the central nervous system, modulate neuronal survival and function. Astrocytic functions are mediated by synthesis and secretion of wide ranges of polypeptides through mechanism (s) poorly understood. Among these, TGFβs are synthesized and released by the astrocytes. In this study, the involvement of Wnt signaling pathway on the synthesi...

BACKGROUND Wnt signaling plays an important role in development and maintenance of many organs and tissues. The most-studied secreted Wnt inhibitors are sclerostin (SOST), Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK-1), and secreted frizzled related protein 1 (SFRP-1) which play important roles in bone turnover. The present study investigated the relationship between serum Wnt inhibitors and diseases with ...

A pivotal role in guiding mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation has recently been attributed to the primary cilium. This solitary, non-motile microtubule-based organelle emerging from the cell surface acts as a sensorial membrane structure reflecting developmental and adaptive processes associated with pathologies including human cystic kidney disease, skeletal malformations, obesity and ...