Investigation of Wnt gene expression level in induced apoptosis cell

There are many studies reporting that Wnt signaling pathways regulate programmed cell death through different molecular mechanisms. In one of our previous studies we observed striking differences in genes of the Wnt signaling pathway by using a PCR array methodology (unpublished data). Based on these data we chose to study differences in the levels of Wnt1,Wnt4,Wnt5a,Wnt7a,Wnt7b, Wnt8a and Wnt10a genes after before and after apoptotic stimuli. A dual luciferase reporter assay was used to evaluate gene expression and caspase 3 activation was used for the evaluation of apoptosis. Only Wnt7b, Wnt8a and Wnt10a promoters were cloned in to reporter vectors. These vectors were transfected in to Kelly cells which were subsequently induced to undergo apoptosis Luciferase measurements of each promoter were evaluated. An 1.5 fold increase in activity was observed for the Wnt7b, Wnt8a and Wnt10a gene promoters after apoptotic induction.