Department of Urology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.
Department of Urology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Mol Hum Reprod. 2021 Jan 22;27(1). doi: 10.1093/molehr/gaaa085.
Accumulating evidence has shown that Wnt signaling is deeply involved in male reproductive physiology, and malfunction of the signal path can cause pathological changes in genital organs and sperm cells. These abnormalities are diverse in manifestation and have been constantly found in the knockout models of Wnt studies. Nevertheless, most of the research solely focused on a certain factor in the Wnt pathway, and there are few reports on the overall relation between Wnt signals and male reproductive physiology. In our review, Wnt findings relating to the reproductive system were sought and summarized in terms of Wnt ligands, Wnt receptors, Wnt intracellular signals and Wnt regulators. By sorting out and integrating relevant functions, as well as underlining the controversies among different reports, our review aims to offer an overview of Wnt signaling in male reproductive physiology and pathology for further mechanistic studies.
越来越多的证据表明 Wnt 信号通路在男性生殖生理学中起着重要作用，该信号通路的功能障碍可导致生殖器官和精子细胞发生病理变化。这些异常在表现上多种多样，在 Wnt 信号通路的敲除模型中不断被发现。然而，大多数研究仅关注 Wnt 通路中的某个特定因素，关于 Wnt 信号与男性生殖生理学之间的整体关系的报道较少。在本综述中，我们检索并总结了与生殖系统相关的 Wnt 发现，从 Wnt 配体、Wnt 受体、Wnt 细胞内信号和 Wnt 调节因子这几个方面进行阐述。通过梳理和整合相关功能，并强调不同报道之间的争议，我们的综述旨在为进一步的机制研究提供男性生殖生理学和病理学中 Wnt 信号的概述。
