Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Placenta. 2010 Oct;31(10):839-47. doi: 10.1016/j.placenta.2010.07.011. Epub 2010 Aug 15.
The family of secreted Wingless ligands plays major roles in embryonic development, stem cell maintenance, differentiation and tissue homeostasis. Accumulating evidence suggests that the canonical Wnt pathway involving nuclear recruitment of β-catenin and activation of Wnt-dependent transcription factors is also critically involved in development and differentiation of the diverse reproductive tissues. Here, we summarise our present knowledge about expression, regulation and function of Wnt ligands and their frizzled receptors in murine and human endometrial and placental cell types. In mice, Wnt signalling promotes early trophoblast lineage development, blastocyst activation, implantation and chorion-allantois fusion. Moreover, different Wnt ligands play essential roles in the development of the murine uterine tract, in cycling endometrial cells and during decidualisation. In humans, estrogen-dependent endometrial cell proliferation, decidualisation, trophoblast attachment and invasion were shown to be controlled by the particular signalling pathway. Failures in Wnt signalling are associated with infertility, endometriosis, endometrial cancer and gestational diseases such as complete mole placentae and choriocarcinomas. However, our present knowledge is still scarce due to the complexity of the Wnt network involving numerous ligands, receptors and non-canonical pathways. Hence, much remains to be learned about the role of different Wnt signalling cascades in reproductive cell types and their changes under pathological conditions.
分泌的 Wingless 配体家族在胚胎发育、干细胞维持、分化和组织稳态中发挥重要作用。越来越多的证据表明，涉及核内β-连环蛋白募集和 Wnt 依赖性转录因子激活的经典 Wnt 途径也与各种生殖组织的发育和分化密切相关。在这里，我们总结了我们目前对 Wnt 配体及其 frizzled 受体在鼠类和人类子宫内膜和胎盘细胞类型中的表达、调节和功能的了解。在小鼠中，Wnt 信号促进早期滋养层谱系发育、囊胚激活、着床和绒毛膜-尿囊融合。此外，不同的 Wnt 配体在小鼠子宫道的发育、周期性子宫内膜细胞和蜕膜化过程中发挥重要作用。在人类中，雌激素依赖性子宫内膜细胞增殖、蜕膜化、滋养层附着和侵袭被证明受特定信号通路的控制。Wnt 信号的失败与不孕、子宫内膜异位症、子宫内膜癌和妊娠疾病（如完全葡萄胎胎盘和绒毛膜癌）有关。然而，由于涉及众多配体、受体和非经典途径的 Wnt 网络的复杂性，我们目前的知识仍然匮乏。因此，还有很多关于不同的 Wnt 信号级联在生殖细胞类型中的作用以及它们在病理条件下的变化有待了解。
