Wnt信号通路在肾脏发育中的作用

The Role of Wnt Signaling Pathway in Kidney Development

Wnt信号通路是在胚胎发育过程中起重要作用的高度保守的信号通路,参与诱导胚胎肾脏发育,也参与了多种肾脏疾病的发生发展,且Wnt信号通路常通过经典信号通路和非经典信号通路来传递信息。当Wnt基因表达异常时会导致肾脏发育异常以及产生肾脏疾病,如先天性肾脏畸形、先天性尿路畸形、多囊肾和肾癌等。通过对不同Wnt配体基因敲除的模型和体外细胞、组织培养等的研究证明了Wnt信号通路在肾脏发育中具有必不可少的作用。此外,研究还发现在诱导肾单位的形成过程中,多种亚型的Wnt配体及其受体和转录的相关靶点表达出现上调,参与调节输尿管芽和后肾间充质的发育和分化等。本文总结了近年来Wnt信号通路在肾脏发育中的研究进展情况,以便为肾脏疾病的临床治疗提供新的方案。

The Wnt signaling pathway is a highly conserved signaling pathway that plays an important role in embryonic development and is involved in the induction of embryonic kidney development, as well as in the development of various renal diseases, and the Wnt signaling pathway often transmits in-formation through both classical and non-classical signaling pathways. When Wnt gene expression is abnormal, it leads to abnormal kidney development and kidney diseases such as congenital kid-ney malformation, congenital urogenital malformation, polycystic kidney and kidney cancer. The essential role of the Wnt signaling pathway in kidney development was demonstrated by studies on different Wnt ligand knockout models and in vitro cell and tissue cultures. In addition, it was found that the expression of multiple isoforms of Wnt ligands and their receptors and transcrip-tion-related targets appear up-regulated during the induction of renal unit formation, which is in-volved in regulating the development and differentiation of ureteral buds and posterior renal mesenchyme, among others. In this paper, we summarize the research progress of Wnt signaling pathway in kidney development in recent years in order to provide new options for clinical treat-ment of kidney diseases.