An Updated Overview on Wnt Signaling Pathways

Growth factor signaling is required for cellular differentiation, tissue morphogenesis, and tissue homeostasis. Misregulation of intracellular signal transduction can lead to developmental defects during embryogenesis or particular diseases in the adult. One family of growth factors important for these aspects is given by the Wnt proteins. In particular, Wnts have important functions in stem cell biology, cardiac development and differentiation, angiogenesis, cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac failure, and aging. Knowledge of growth factor signaling during differentiation will allow for improvement of targeted differentiation of embryonic or adult stem cells toward functional cardiomyocytes or for understanding the…