Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Oct;24(10):1425-1438.
doi: 10.1007/s11886-022-01756-8. Epub 2022 Aug 4.

Wnt Signaling in Heart Development and Regeneration

Dongliang Li  1 , Jianjian Sun  1   2 , Tao P Zhong  3
Affiliations
Review

Wnt Signaling in Heart Development and Regeneration

Dongliang Li et al. Curr Cardiol Rep. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose of review: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, largely due to the limited regenerative capacity of the adult human heart. In contrast, teleost zebrafish hearts possess natural regeneration capacity by proliferation of pre-existing cardiomyocytes after injury. Hearts of mice can regenerate if injured in a few days after birth, which coincides with the transient capacity for cardiomyocyte proliferation. This review tends to elaborate the roles and mechanisms of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in heart development and regeneration in mammals and non-mammalian vertebrates.

Recent findings: Studies in zebrafish, mice, and human embryonic stem cells demonstrate the binary effect for Wnt/β-catenin signaling during heart development. Both Wnts and Wnt antagonists are induced in multiple cell types during cardiac development and injury repair. In this review, we summarize composites of the Wnt signaling pathway and their different action routes, followed by the discussion of their involvements in cardiac specification, proliferation, and patterning. We provide overviews about canonical and non-canonical Wnt activity during heart homeostasis, remodeling, and regeneration. Wnt/β-catenin signaling exhibits biphasic and antagonistic effects on cardiac specification and differentiation depending on the stage of embryogenesis. Inhibition of Wnt signaling is beneficial for cardiac wound healing and functional recovery after injury. Understanding of the roles and mechanisms of Wnt signaling pathway in injured animal hearts will contribute to the development of potential therapeutics for human diseased hearts.

Keywords: Development; Fibrosis; Heart; Homeostasis; Regeneration; Wnt/β-catenin.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance
    1. Litvinukova M, Talavera-Lopez C, Maatz H, Reichart D, Worth CL, Lindberg EL, et al. Cells of the adult human heart. Nature. 2020;588(7838):466–72. - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Tucker NR, Chaffin M, Fleming SJ, Hall AW, Parsons VA, Bedi KC Jr, et al. Transcriptional and cellular diversity of the human heart. Circulation. 2020;142(5):466–82. - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Cui Y, Zheng Y, Liu X, Yan L, Fan X, Yong J, et al. Single-cell transcriptome analysis maps the developmental track of the human heart. Cell Rep. 2019;26(7):1934–50 e5.
    1. Chen L, Hua K, Zhang N, Wang J, Meng J, Hu Z, et al. Multifaceted spatial and functional zonation of cardiac cells in adult human heart. Circulation. 2022;145(4):315–8. - PubMed - DOI
    1. Gao L, Zhang H, Cui J, Pei L, Huang S, Mao Y, et al. Single-cell transcriptomics of cardiac progenitors reveals functional subpopulations and their cooperative crosstalk in cardiac repair. Protein Cell. 2021;12(2):152–7. - PubMed - DOI

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources