The expression of Wnt, Wnt receptor-frizzled, and several other key compone
nts in Wnt pathway in renal cancer cell lines was studied. The result of se
mi-quantitative RT-PCR has shown that the expression level of Wnf5A and hFz
5 mRNA were higher in renal cancer cell line (GRC-1) than in normal renal c
ell line (HK-2). This result has been confirmed by in situ hybridization, T
he expression of beta -catenin protein was obviously higher in GRC-1 than i
n HK-2 (P<0.01), but there were no different expressions of its mRNA betwee
n 3 lines. The reasons of the overexpression of <beta>-catenin has been inv
estigated by means of immunocytochemistry, SSCP and so on, no mutation of b
eta -catenin gene and APC were found. That means that the overexpression of
Wnf5A/hFz5 might be the reason of overexpression of beta -catenin. It was
concluded that the aberrant activity of Wnt pathway might play an important
role in renal cell carcinoma.