The present invention relates to compounds, compositions, and methods for the study, diagnosis, and treatment of traits, diseases and conditions that respond expressed/synthetic to the modulation of PHD2 gene expression and/or activity, and/or modulate a beta-catenin gene expression pathway. Specifically, the invention relates to double-stranded nucleic acid molecules including small nucleic acid molecules, such as short inter-fering nucleic acid (siNA), short interfering RNA (siRNA), double-stranded RNA (dsR-NA), micro-RNA (miRNA), and short hair-pin RNA (shRNA) molecules that are capa-ble of mediating or that mediate RNA inter-ference (RNAi) against PHD2 gene expres-sion.
