Examination of expression patterns of WNT signalling in the human fallopian tubes

The fallopian tubes are a pair of tubes that are examined in four different anatomical sections, extending between the uterus and ovaries. Each anatomical region is known to have different structural features and cell distributions. Wnt signaling pathway ligands, which are important in the control of developmental events, stem cells and cell behavior, are released from the fallopian tubes under physiological and pathological conditions. In this study, it was aimed to perform quantitative analysis of canonical Wnt pathway ligands in different anatomical regions of human fallopian tubes, immunohistochemical evaluation of Wnt3a ligand and to show that these different regions were not affected by pathologies to examine light microscopically. For this purpose, unilateral fallopian tube tissues taken from 5 patients in secretory phase were divided into three regions as proximal, distal and ampullary. The reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR method revealed the expression of 7 of 8 different canonical Wnt pathway ligands in fallopian tubes. Wnt1, Wnt3, Wnt3a, Wnt8b, Wnt10a, and Wnt10b ligands showed higher expression levels in fimbriae, whereas Wnt3a expression was significantly lower in the proximal portion than in the distal and ampullar portions. When Wnt3a ligand was evaluated immunohistochemically, it was observed to be intensely localized in tube epithelium and lamina propria. The presence of Wnt ligands suppressed in secretory phase by fallopian tubes shows the importance of this pathway in tube homeostasis. Also it has been shown that Wnt ligands can be considered as protective factors of stemness in fallopian tubes.