APC controls asymmetric Wnt/β-catenin signaling and cardiomyocyte proliferation gradient in the heart.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

Cardiomyocyte (CM) proliferation increases from the inner trabecular to outer compact myocardium in fetal hearts. We determined if canonical Wnt signaling has directional and graded activity to maintain this CM proliferation gradient. Moreover, we investigated whether perturbation of Wnt signaling intensity could modulate CM proliferative activity.

Methods and results

With confocal microscopy and image analysis we found that the Wnt effector, β-catenin, formed a signaling gradient which positively correlated with CM proliferative activity across ventricular walls of wild type (WT) embryos at embryonic day (E) 13.5 and 17.5. Negative Wnt regulators, adenomatosis polyposis coli (APC), had a reverse distribution pattern. The activation of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling

SUBMITTER: Ye B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4801005 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature