BACKGROUND Dickkopf-1 (Dkk-1) is a head inducer secreted from the vertebrate head organizer and induces anterior development by antagonizing Wnt signaling. Although several families of secreted antagonists have been shown to inhibit Wnt signal transduction by binding to Wnt, the molecular mechanism of Dkk-1 action is unknown. The Wnt family of secreted growth factors initiates signaling via the...

Abstract Wntless (WLS), an evolutionarily conserved multi-pass transmembrane protein, is essential for secretion of Wnt proteins. Wnt-triggered signaling pathways control many crucial life events, whereas aberrant tightly associated with human diseases including cancers. Here, we report the cryo-EM structure WLS in complex Wnt3a, most widely studied Wnt, at 2.2 Å resolution. The domain bears a ...

The pluripotent nature of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) makes them convenient for deriving therapeutically relevant cells. Here we show using Wnt reporter hESC lines that the cells are heterogeneous with respect to endogenous Wnt signalling activity. Moreover, the level of Wnt signalling activity in individual cells correlates with differences in clonogenic potential and lineage-specific d...

Signaling by the Wnt family of secreted glycoproteins plays important roles in embryonic development and adult homeostasis. Wnt signaling is modulated by a number of evolutionarily conserved inhibitors and activators. Wnt inhibitors belong to small protein families, including sFRP, Dkk, WIF, Wise/SOST, Cerberus, IGFBP, Shisa, Waif1, APCDD1, and Tiki1. Their common feature is to antagonize Wnt s...

Introduction. Urotensin II (U II) is a kind of active peptide with variety biological effects, such as promoting cell proliferation and endocrine effects. The aim this study to investigate the effect urotensin on secretion vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in cultured rat dermal papilla cells (DPCs), explore its molecular mechanism. Materials Methods. We used DPCs isolated from thoracic...

The wnt gene family codes for a group of cysteine-rich, secreted proteins, which are differentially expressed in the developing embryo and are possibly involved in cellular communication. Here, we describe the polymerase chain reaction based cloning and embryonic expression patterns of four zebrafish wnt-related sequences; wnt[a], wnt[b], wnt[c] and wnt[d]. One of these genes, wnt[a], is a pote...

The goal of this study is to better understand the complexity canonical Wnt/β-catenin (C-WNT) signaling pathway in colorectal cancer (CRC): how it works, its key mutations and novel therapeutic compounds under development. PubMed, Scopus SciELO were used find most relevant medical literature on issue. C-WNT regulates essential cellular biological processes: genetic changes are significant contr...

Many studies indicate the involvement of WNT signaling in oncogenesis and melanoma drug resistance. Receptor-interacting protein kinase (RIPK4), which targets multiple pathways such as Wnt/β-catenin, NFKB MAPK, is might be a alternative target. This supported by fact that RIPK4 levels are elevated cells compared to normal melanocytes. Since role this regulation pathway remain unknown, we tested...

Wnt factors regulate neural stem cell development and neuronal connectivity. Here we investigated whether Wnt-3a and Wnt-3, expressed in the developing spinal cord, regulate proliferation and the neuronal differentiation of spinal cord neural precursors (SCNP). Wnt-3a promoted a sustained increase of SCNP proliferation and decreased the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. In contr...