Abstract
Active Wnt/β-catenin signaling is essential for proper cardiac specification, progenitor expansion and myocardial growth. During development, the mass of the embryonic heart increases multiple times to achieve the dimensions of adult ventricular chambers. Cell division in the embryonic heart is fairly present, whereas cell turnover in the adult myocardium is extremely low. Understanding of embryonic cardiomyocyte cell-replication, therefore, could improve strategies for cardiac regenerative therapeutics. Here, we review which role Wnt signaling plays in cardiac development and highlight a selection of attempts that have been made to modulate Wnt signaling after cardiac ischemic injury to improve cardiac function and reduce infarct size.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases and especially heart failure are among the most frequent disease entities worldwide
The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays an important role in embryonic cardiac specification, cardiovascular progenitor expansion and cardiomyocyte proliferation [4]
Wnt signaling is rarely reported to be active in the adult heart; recent evidence suggests that after ischemic damage the myocardium and epicardium exhibit active Wnt signaling [5,6]
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases and especially heart failure are among the most frequent disease entities worldwide. A loss of functional cardiomyocytes overtime can perturb the balance between the body’s oxygen demands and the blood supply generated by the heart. The heart is the first organ to be formed in the mammalian embryo, where its role becomes essential to supply the exponential increasing demands in nutrients as is required for growth [2,3]. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays an important role in embryonic cardiac specification, cardiovascular progenitor expansion and cardiomyocyte proliferation [4]. We focus on Wnt signaling and its role in cardiac development. We display a selection of efforts that have been made to modulate Wnt signaling after cardiac ischemic injury to improve infarct healing and functional outcome
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