Department of Oral Biology, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3E 0W2, Canada.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jun 27;24(13):10692. doi: 10.3390/ijms241310692.
Zebrafish () is a well-established model organism for studying melanocyte biology due to its remarkable similarity to humans. The Wnt signalling pathway is a conserved signal transduction pathway that plays a crucial role in embryonic development and regulates many aspects of the melanocyte lineage. Our study was designed to investigate the effect of Wnt signalling activity on zebrafish melanocyte development and patterning. Stereo-microscopic examinations were used to screen for changes in melanocyte count, specific phenotypic differences, and distribution in zebrafish, while microscopic software tools were used to analyse the differences in pigment dispersion of melanocytes exposed to LiCl (Wnt enhancer) and W-C59 (Wnt inhibitor). Samples exposed to W-C59 showed low melanocyte densities and defects in melanocyte phenotype and patterning, whereas LiCl exposure demonstrated a stimulatory effect on most aspects of melanocyte development. Our study demonstrates the crucial role of Wnt signalling in melanocyte lineage and emphasises the importance of a balanced Wnt signalling level for proper melanocyte development and patterning.
斑马鱼 () 是一种研究黑素细胞生物学的成熟模式生物，因为它与人类有惊人的相似之处。Wnt 信号通路是一种保守的信号转导通路，在胚胎发育中起着至关重要的作用，并调节黑素细胞谱系的许多方面。我们的研究旨在探讨 Wnt 信号活性对斑马鱼黑素细胞发育和模式形成的影响。立体显微镜检查用于筛选黑素细胞计数、特定表型差异和分布的变化，而微观软件工具用于分析暴露于 LiCl（Wnt 增强剂）和 W-C59（Wnt 抑制剂）的黑素细胞中色素分散的差异。暴露于 W-C59 的样本显示黑素细胞密度低，黑素细胞表型和模式形成缺陷，而 LiCl 暴露对大多数黑素细胞发育方面表现出刺激作用。我们的研究表明 Wnt 信号在黑素细胞谱系中起着关键作用，并强调了平衡的 Wnt 信号水平对正常黑素细胞发育和模式形成的重要性。
