title: The role of extracellular modulators of canonical Wnt signaling in bone metabolism and diseases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Wnt signaling pathway is a key pathway in various processes, including bone metabolism. In this review, current knowledge of all extracellular modulators of the canonical Wnt signaling in bone metabolism is summarized and discussed.
  
  
  METHODS
  The PubMed database was searched using the following keywords: canonical Wnt signaling, β-catenin bone metabolism, BMD, osteoblast, osteoporosis, Wnt, LRPs, Frizzleds, sFRPs, sclerostin or SOST, dickkopfs, Wif1, R-spondins, glypicans, SOST-dc1 and kremen, all separately as well as in different combinations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Canonical Wnt signaling is considered to be one of the major pathways regulating bone formation. Consequently, a large number of studies were performed to elucidate the role of numerous proteins in canonical Wnt signaling and bone metabolism. These studies led to the identification of novel modulators of the pathway like the R-spondin and glypican protein families. Furthermore novel insights are gained in the regulatory role of the different Wnt proteins. Finally, due to its function in bone formation, the pathway is an interesting target for the development of therapeutics for osteoporosis and other bone diseases. In this review, we discuss the promising results of the Wnt modulators sclerostin, Dkk1 and sFRP1 as targets for osteoporosis treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The increasing number of studies into the exact function of all proteins in the canonical Wnt pathway in general and in bone metabolism already led to novel insights in the regulation of the canonical Wnt pathway. In this review we covered the current knowledge of all extracellular modulators of canonical Wnt signaling.
authors: Department of Medical Genetics, University of Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium.
authors: Eveline
authors: E
authors: Boudin
authors: Igor
authors: I
authors: Fijalkowski
authors: Elke
authors: E
authors: Piters
authors: Wim
authors: W
authors: Van Hul
mesh_terms: D001847:Bone Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D010006:Osteoblasts / Q000378:metabolism; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D060449:Wnt Signaling Pathway / Q000502:physiology*; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D051153:Wnt Proteins; D051176:beta Catenin
keywords: Bone metabolism; Osteoporosis; Wnt signaling; β-catenin