. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jan 31.

Published in final edited form as: Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol. 2014 Nov 12;29(1):3–16. doi: 10.1016/j.bpg.2014.11.001

Table 2.

Developmental factors implicated in BE

Factors	Biological functions
Factors	General function	Normal esophagus	BE
BMP4	Ligand (BMP pathway)	Epithelial stratification and differentiation during the esophageal development	Upregulated to promote intestinalization in concert with CDX2
Hh	Ligand (Hh pathway)	Tracheoesophageal separation	intestinalization by inducing MUC2
SOX2	Transcription factor	Squamous epithelial homeostasis/stem cell homeostasis Cooperates with p63 Inhibits CDX2	Downregulated
P63	Transcription factor	Squamous epithelial homeostasis/stem cell homeostasis	Downregulated
CDX2	Transcription factor	Not expressed	Upregulated to promote Intestinalization