[Canonical Wnt signaling pathway and cellular responses].

Wnt signaling study was started with Drosophila genetic analyses in 1970' and was expanded into various field including developmental biology and tumor biology. Wnt activates multiple intracellular signaling cascades by binding to its cell surface receptors, and the canonical pathway, which is mediated byβ-catenin, has been most extensively studied. It was clarified that the whole picture of the mechanisms for the degradation and stabilization ofβ-catenin. There are many genes which are regulated by canonical Wnt signaling, and among them some genes play an essential role for stem cell functions.