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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

The Soft Agar Colony Formation Assay
Published on: October 27, 2014
The Wnt-signaling pathway is not implicated in tumorigenesis of Merkel cell carcinoma
Shuang Liu1, Tsutomu Daa, Kenji Kashima
1First Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Oita University, Oita, Japan.
Background:
The Wnt-signaling pathway, involving beta-catenin, apc, and axin, plays a critical role in numerous developmental events. Alterations in the Wnt-signaling pathway have been detected in a wide variety of neoplasms. However, similar aberrations have not been described in Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). The aim of this study was to determine the status of the Wnt-signaling pathway in MCC.
Methods:
Twelve cases of MCC were tested for the expression of beta-catenin and mutational status of CTNNB1 (gene for beta-catenin), APC, AXIN1, and AXIN2. Genomic DNA extracted from paraffin blocks was subjected to a polymerase chain reaction/single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and sequencing.
Results:
Nuclear accumulation of beta-catenin was observed in only one case (8.3%), as determined by immunochemistry. No mutations were found in CTNNB1, APC, and AXIN2 in all cases, although silent mutations in AXIN1 were detected in three cases.
Conclusions:
We conclude that the Wnt-signaling pathway does not play an important role in tumorigenesis in MCC.
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