Wnt/frizzled-2 signaling induces aggregation and adhesion among cardiac myocytes by increased cadherin-beta-catenin complex.

ABSTRACT: Wingless is known to be required for induction of cardiac mesoderm in Drosophila, but the function of Wnt family proteins, vertebrate homologues of wingless, in cardiac myocytes remains unknown. When medium conditioned by HEK293 cells overexpressing Wnt-3a or -5a was applied to cultured neonatal cardiac myocytes, Wnt proteins induced myocyte aggregation in the presence of fibroblasts, concomitant with increases in beta-catenin and N-cadherin in the myocytes and with E- and M-cadherins in the fibroblasts. The aggregation was inhibited by anti-N-cadherin antibody and induced by constitutively active beta-catenin, but was unaffected by dominant negative and dominant positive T cell factor (TCF) mutants. Thus, increased stabilization of complexed cadherin-beta-catenin in both cell types appear

SUBMITTER: Toyofuku T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2185559 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature