National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2012 Dec 1;4(12):a007997. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a007997.
The skeleton as an organ is widely distributed throughout the entire vertebrate body. Wnt signaling has emerged to play major roles in almost all aspects of skeletal development and homeostasis. Because abnormal Wnt signaling causes various human skeletal diseases, Wnt signaling has become a focal point of intensive studies in skeletal development and disease. As a result, promising effective therapeutic agents for bone diseases are being developed by targeting the Wnt signaling pathway. Understanding the functional mechanisms of Wnt signaling in skeletal biology and diseases highlights how basic and clinical studies can stimulate each other to push a quick and productive advancement of the entire field. Here we review the current understanding of Wnt signaling in critical aspects of skeletal biology such as bone development, remodeling, mechanotransduction, and fracture healing. We took special efforts to place fundamentally important discoveries in the context of human skeletal diseases.
骨骼作为一个器官广泛分布于整个脊椎动物体内。Wnt 信号通路在骨骼发育和稳态的几乎所有方面都发挥着重要作用。由于异常的 Wnt 信号通路会导致各种人类骨骼疾病，因此 Wnt 信号通路已成为骨骼发育和疾病研究的焦点。作为结果，通过靶向 Wnt 信号通路，正在开发针对骨疾病的有前途的有效治疗药物。了解 Wnt 信号在骨骼生物学和疾病中的功能机制突出了基础研究和临床研究如何相互刺激，推动整个领域的快速和富有成效的发展。在这里，我们综述了 Wnt 信号在骨骼生物学的关键方面的最新认识，如骨发育、重塑、机械转导和骨折愈合。我们特别努力将基本重要的发现置于人类骨骼疾病的背景下。
