Disease relevance of WNT8B

• Human WNT8A mRNA is expressed in NT2 cells with neuronal differentiation potential, while human WNT8B mRNA in diffuse type gastric cancer [1].
• WNT8B mRNAs of 4.4- and 3.5-kb in size were weakly detected in a colorectal cancer cell line SW480, but were undetectable in any normal human tissues by using Northern blot analyses [2].
• Both WNT8A and WNT8B mRNAs were undetectable in 7 brain tumor cell lines [3].
• Although WNT8A mRNA was undetectable in 3 breast cancer cell lines, WNT8B mRNA was detected in the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 [3].
• Although WNT8B is undetectable in normal adult tissues by using Northern blot analyses, WNT8B is expressed in gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and embryonal tumors [4].

High impact information on WNT8B

• Expression in the developing hippocampus may suggest a role for WNT8B in patterning of this region and subchromosomal localization of the human gene to 10q24 may suggest it as a candidate gene for partial epilepsy in families where the disease has been linked to markers in this region [5].
• A novel mammalian wnt gene, WNT8B, shows brain-restricted expression in early development, with sharply delimited expression boundaries in the developing forebrain [5].
• In silico expression analyses revealed that human WNT8B was expressed in embryoid body derived from embryonic stem (ES) cells, hepatocyte progenitors derived from ES cells, fetal brain, diffuse-type gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian fibrotheoma [4].
• Conserved POU/OCT- and GATA-binding sites in 5'-flanking promoter region of mammalian WNT8B orthologs [4].
• We cloned and characterized the wild-type human WNT8B, while another group the aberrant human WNT8B with Gly230Ala and Arg284Leu amino-acid substitutions [4].

Biological context of WNT8B

• Here, we cloned and characterized human WNT8B by using bioinformatics, cDNA-PCR, and RACE [2].
• WNT8B gene of about 23-kb in size consisted of six exons, and encoded a 351-amino-acid polypeptide with the N-terminal signal peptide and two N-linked glycosylation sites [2].
• Thirty-five nucleotide changes between WNT8B isolated by us and WNT8B isolated by another group resulted in Gly230Ala and Arg284Leu amino-acid substitutions [2].
• Up-regulation of WNT8B mRNA in human gastric cancer [2].
• Gly230-Arg284 WNT8B allele was also identified in human genome draft sequences AL133352.10, AL359759.18, and human EST BF732616 [2].

Anatomical context of WNT8B

• Here, we investigated expression and regulation of WNT8A and WNT8B mRNAs in human tumor cell lines by using cDNA-PCR [3].

Associations of WNT8B with chemical compounds

• WNT8A and WNT8B mRNAs were down-regulated together in NT2 cells after all-trans retinoic-acid treatment [3].
• WNT8B mRNA, but not WNT8A mRNA, was significantly up-regulated by beta-estradiol in MCF-7 cells [3].
• Comparative proteomics revealed that N-terminal signal peptide, 22 Cys residues, two Asn-linked glycosylation sites, Gly230, and Arg284 of human WNT8B were conserved among mammalian WNT8B orthologs [4].

Other interactions of WNT8B

• C-terminal region of WNT8A, WNT8B, WNT2, WNT2B1 and WNT2B2 were longer than that of other WNTs [6].

References