Beta-catenin/T-cell factor signaling is activated during lung injury and promotes the survival and migration of alveolar epithelial cells.

ABSTRACT: The Wnt/beta-catenin signaling cascade activates genes that allow cells to adopt particular identities throughout development. In adult self-renewing tissues like intestine and blood, activation of the Wnt pathway maintains a progenitor phenotype, whereas forced inhibition of this pathway promotes differentiation. In the lung alveolus, type 2 epithelial cells (AT2) have been described as progenitors for the type 1 cell (AT1), but whether AT2 progenitors use the same signaling mechanisms to control differentiation as rapidly renewing tissues is not known. We show that adult AT2 cells do not exhibit constitutive beta-catenin signaling in vivo, using the AXIN2(+/LacZ) reporter mouse, or after fresh isolation of an enriched population of AT2 cells. Rather, this pathway is activated in lungs su

SUBMITTER: Flozak AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2823449 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature