Paracrine signaling in stem cell renewal and in neoplastic tumor growth

Paracrine pathway activities are being increasingly recognized as instrumental regulatory mechanisms of epithelial-stromal interactions that play important roles in physiological and pathological self-renewal of stem cells and in the initiation and maintenance of neoplastic tumor development.Stromal-specific Hedgehog(Hh)responses and epithelial-associated Wnt pathway activities have been recently appreciated as important factors in stem cell self-renewal and carcinogenesis.Furthermore,Hh and Wnt pathways frequently crosstalk with each other to regulate the growth of epithelial cells in a context-dependent manner.Because small molecule modulators of Hh and Wnt pathway activities are readily available,emerging roles of Hh-Wnt pathway crosstalk in epithelial-stromal interactions will shed light on the development of regenerative and anti-cancer medicines.