Analysis of the expression of Wnt signaling ligands in metastatic renal cell carcinomas tissue samples.

e15077 Background: Renal cell carcinomas (RCC) constitute a morphologically and genetically heterogeneous tumor.Wnt proteins are a large family of secreted glycoproteins that activate intracellular signal transduction pathways to control a wide variety of cellular processes such as determination of cell fate, proliferation, migration, and polarity.Wnt signalling may be playing a central role during RCC development. Methods: To characterize Wnt signalling activity in RCC, we gathered 48 tumor samples from patients diagnosed with metastatic RCC between years 2006 and 2011. Expression levels of Wnt family members (Wnt1, Wnt2, Wnt3a, Wnt4, Wnt5a, Wnt7a, and Wnt9a) were examined by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry in tumor and normal tissue from removed kidneys. Results: Wnt1 and Wnt5a were up-regulated in clear cell RCC being their relative expression 2.4.103 (Wnt1) and 4.102 (Wnt5a) times higher in renal tumor tissue than in normal tissue. One-way ANOVA test showed Wnt3a and Wnt4 as the best protein ma...