Expression of Wnt1 and Wnt8a genes in colons of Hirschsprung disease

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of Wnt1 and Wnt8a genes in tissue samples from the patients with Hirschsprung disease (HD).Methods The expression of Wnt1 and Wnt8a mRNA and proteins were quantitatively analyzed in 60 cases of HD (aganglionic and ganglionic segments).Results In the HD patients,there was statistically significant difference in the differential expression of Wnt1 and Wnt8a mRNA between the stenotic intestine and the normal intestine.The relative expression of Wnt1 mRNA in the stenotic intestine and normal intestine was 17.66 ± 1.28 and 29.61 ± 3.23 respectively.The relative expression of Wnt8a mRNA in the stenotic intestine and normal intestine was 31.77 ± 2.21 and 15.01 ± 1.29 respectively (P ＜ 0.05).The protein expressive levels of Wnt1 and Wnt8a were 19.51 ±1.57 and 33.17 ±2.09 in the stenotic intestine,and 37.05 ± 1.23 and 17.35 ±0.87 in the normal intestine,respectively (P ＜ 0.05).The expression level of Wnt1 protein was lower in the aganglionic segment than in the ganglionic segment.Immunohistochemistry revelaed that Wnt1 was highly expressed in the ganglionic segment,but weakly expressed in the aganglionic segment; Wnt8a was highly expression in the aganglionic segment,but weakly expressed in the ganglionic segment.Conclusion There is the aberrant expression of Wnt1 and Wnt8a mRNA and proteins in HD,suggesting the Wnt1 and Wnt8a are involved in the pathogenesis of HD,which may play a role in the pathogenesis of congenital malformation of the alimentary tract. Key words: Hirschsprung disease ; Wnt1 ; Wnt8a ; Gene expression