Expression profiling of Wnt pathway genes in breast cancer

Excerpt

Wnt signaling, initially identified in early embryogenesis of Drosophila, is involved in a large set of cellular processes, including proliferation, differentiation, migration, and apoptosis. Canonical Wnt signaling is involved in cell fate choices, stem cell renewal and differentiation, whereas non-canonical signaling deals with morphological changes and tissue organization. Since the discovery of Wnt-1 as a virally-induced oncogene in mouse mammary tumors, Wnt signaling has become a center of interest in human breast carcinogenesis. Surprisingly, genetic aberrations of Wnt signaling have been revealed in different malignancies including colon cancer, liver cancer and hematological cancer, but not in breast cancer. Thus, epigenetic changes in Wnt signaling, rather than mutations, may be more relevant to breast cancers in humans. However, this aspect of Wnt signaling in breast cancer is not fully understood. We aimed to study the expression of key components of Wnt signaling in breast cancer. Here, we report the preliminary results obtained from our expression profiling studies for all known Wnt ligand, frizzled receptor, co-receptor and Lef/TCF transcription factor genes, using a set of cell lines and primary tumors. …