Endocrine Abstracts

Wnt/beta-catenin signalling pathway is required during embryonic development for normal cell proliferation, differentiation and for organ homeostasis in adulthood. Over-activation of this pathway has been implicated in human cancers such as colon or skin cancers. Here, we demonstrate that enhancement of the Wnt pathway in the embryonic Rathke’s pouch causes over-proliferation of progenitor cells and severe differentiation defects in the Pit1-lineage, which results ...

Loss-of-function mutations in FGF8 in humans have been associated with Kallmann syndrome (KS), which is characterised by the combination of hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism with anosmia, suggesting that FGF8 is critical for GnRH neuronal development. Interestingly, hypomorphic Fgf8 mutant mice demonstrate poor telencephalic development with deletions of midbrain tissue, absence of olfactory bulbs and optic chiasm, and holoprosencephaly (HPE) with an abnormal corpus...