Metaplasia can result when injury reactivates latent developmental signaling pathways that determine cell phenotype. Barrett’s esophagus is a squamous-to-columnar epithelial metaplasia caused by reflux esophagitis. Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is active in columnar-lined, embryonic esophagus and inactive in squamous-lined, adult esophagus. We showed previously that Hh signaling is reactivated in Barrett’s metaplasia and overexpression of Sonic hedgehog (SHH) in mouse esophageal squamous epithelium leads to a columnar phenotype. Here, our objective was to identify Hh target genes involved in Barrett’s pathogenesis. By microarray analysis, we found that the transcription factor
David H. Wang, Anjana Tiwari, Monica E. Kim, Nicholas J. Clemons, Nanda L. Regmi, William A. Hodges, David M. Berman, Elizabeth A. Montgomery, D. Neil Watkins, Xi Zhang, Qiuyang Zhang, Chunfa Jie, Stuart J. Spechler, Rhonda F. Souza