title: Selective activation mechanisms of Wnt signaling pathways.
abstract: Wnts comprise a large family of secreted, hydrophobic glycoproteins that control a variety of developmental and adult processes in all metazoan organisms, including cellular proliferation, differentiation, migration and polarity. Wnts have many receptors that are present on a variety of cell types, partly specifying which Wnt pathways are activated. Recently, evidence has been accumulating that specificity of activation downstream of Wnt is also regulated by receptor-mediated endocytosis and the presence of cofactors such as heparan sulfate proteoglycans, in addition to the formation of specific ligand-receptor pairs. Here, we describe how the different endocytic routes of Wnt receptors through caveolin and clathrin determine specificity of Wnt signaling in vertebrates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3, Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan. akikuchi@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sato
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D006801:Humans; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D051153:Wnt Proteins