Wnt Signaling and Dupuytren's Disease

Little is known about the cause of Dupuytren's disease, in which fibromatosis leads to flexion contractures of the hands and fingers. This genomic study suggests that one cause might be aberrations in the Wnt-signaling pathway. Dupuytren's disease is a benign fibromatosis of the hands and fingers, giving rise to the formation of nodules and cords and often leading to flexion contractures (Fig. 1 in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org). The prevalence of Dupuytren's disease is reported to be between 0.2% and 56.0%. 1 Men are more often affected than women, but by the ninth decade of life, the incidence in women is the same as that in men. 2 , 3 Standard treatment consists of surgical excision or transection of pathologic nodules and cords, but other methods of treatment are emerging. . . .