In the presence of T2DM, however, upregulation of this pathway seems to be more pronounced as expression of the Frizzled 7 membrane receptor (F2D7) and its ligands WNT7A and WNT16 is increased, while that of negative regulators such as AXIN1, a proapoptotic scaffold protein of the β-catenin destruction complex and CTBP2, a corepressor preventing β-catenin from activating its target genes, is suppressed. Here, WNT16 is linked to type 2 diabetes mellitus.