Essential requirement for Wnt signaling in proliferation of adult small intestine and colon revealed by adenoviral expression of Dickkopf-1.

ABSTRACT: Whereas the adult gastrointestinal epithelium undergoes tremendous self-renewal through active proliferation in crypt stem cell compartments, the responsible growth factors regulating this continuous proliferation have not been defined. The exploration of physiologic functions of Wnt proteins in adult organisms has been hampered by functional redundancy and the necessity for conditional inactivation strategies. Dickkopf-1 (Dkk1) is a potent secreted Wnt antagonist that interacts with Wnt coreceptors of the LRP family. To address the contribution of Wnt signaling to gastrointestinal epithelial proliferation, adenoviral expression of Dkk1 was used to achieve stringent, conditional, and reversible Wnt inhibition in adult animals. Adenovirus Dkk1 (Ad Dkk1) treatment of adult mice repressed exp

SUBMITTER: Kuhnert F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC314174 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature