Developmental Signaling Disorders in Craniofacial Anomalies and Cancers

Normal human development requires the precise functioning and coordination of many complex pathways. Abnormalities in these signaling cascades often result in developmental perturbations, giving rise to congenital anomalies and cancers. There are 21,787 genes in each human nucleus, different gene subsets are expressed in different cell types, and different gene networks make different signal cascades. Among a large number of genes, in this review, we describe signaling disorders of sonic hedgehog and its receptor, patched-1; Tie2 ; fibroblast growth factor receptor in craniofacial anomalies and oral cancers.