The Wnt-signaling cascade is required for several crucial steps during early embryogenesis, and its activity is modulated by various agonists and antagonists to provide spatiotemporal-specific signaling. Naked cuticle is a Wnt antagonist that itself is induced by Wnt signaling to keep Wnt signaling in check. Little is known about the regulation of this antagonist. We have recently shown that th...

Studies have been carried out previously to determine whether mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) influence the progression of pulmonary fibrosis. Here, we asked whether MSC (derived from mouse bone marrow and human umbilical cord blood) produce factors that mediate lung fibroblast (LF) growth and matrix production. MSC-conditioned media (CM) were found by ELISA to contain significant amounts of PDGF-...

Wnt signaling has been identified as one of the key signaling pathways in cancer, regulating cell growth, motility and differentiation. Because of its widespread activation in diverse human tumor diseases, the Wnt pathway has gained considerable and growing interest in tumor research over recent years. Evidence that altered Wnt signaling is important for human tumor development came from three ...

Wnts function through the activation of at least three intracellular signal transduction pathways, of which the canonical beta-catenin mediated pathway is the best understood. Aberrant canonical Wnt signaling has been involved in both neurodegeneration and cancer. An impairment of Wnt signals appears to be associated with aspects of neurodegenerative pathologies while overactivation of Wnt sign...

tight junctions between endothelial cells that prevents paracellular fl ow of materials. Because Wnt/ -catenin signaling is a major pathway regulating other aspects of brain development, the authors examined its potential involvement in constructing the BBB. In brain endothelial cells, Wnt signaling was active during the time of maximum vascular development, but not after the BBB matured. Activ...

tight junctions between endothelial cells that prevents paracellular fl ow of materials. Because Wnt/ -catenin signaling is a major pathway regulating other aspects of brain development, the authors examined its potential involvement in constructing the BBB. In brain endothelial cells, Wnt signaling was active during the time of maximum vascular development, but not after the BBB matured. Activ...

Background: Involvement of Wnt proteins and one of its antagonist known as secreted Frizzled Related Protein type-4 (sFPRP-4) was reported in rodent ovarian follicular development. Other studies showed an ap- Abstracts of the 11th Royan International Congress on Reproductive Biomedicine 7 7 International Journal of Fertility & Sterility (IJFS), Vol 4, Suppl 1, Summer 2010 optotic-associated exp...