556 citations
,
September 2008 in “Genes & Development” This review summarizes how genetic studies using conditional β-catenin loss- and gain-of-function mice have advanced understanding of canonical Wnt signaling's role in embryonic development, adult stem cell maintenance, and cancer modeling.
271 citations
,
March 1999 in “Developmental biology” This study reveals that overexpression of Wnt3 in transgenic mouse skin leads to a short-hair phenotype and cyclical balding due to structural defects in hair shafts, highlighting a role for WNT signaling in hair growth regulation.
260 citations
,
June 2011 in “Cell” This study found that Wnt signaling in the hair follicle is crucial for coordinating the behavior of epithelial and melanocyte stem cells, which drives hair regeneration and melanocyte differentiation in mice.
159 citations
,
January 2006 in “BMC Cell Biology” This study found that manipulating Wnt signaling pathways in cutaneous wounds can induce skin structures resembling regeneration, suggesting a potential role for Wnt signals in restoring skin architecture during wound healing.
144 citations
,
August 2019 in “Cells” This review discusses the WNT signaling pathway's involvement in human diseases and highlights recent advances in WNT-related treatments, but it presents no new research findings.
89 citations
,
November 2017 in “Journal of Cellular Physiology” This review discusses the role of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling in stem and cancer stem cell maintenance and its involvement in the development and regeneration of various organs, but reports no new experimental results.
25 citations
,
September 2018 in “Molecular Biology of the Cell” This study found that in mice lacking EGFR, elevated Wnt signaling disrupts hair follicle development by affecting cell proliferation and differentiation, revealing a critical role for EGFR in regulating these processes.
13 citations
,
February 2018 in “Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery” The study found that a specific signaling pathway helps skin wounds heal faster but may lead to larger scars.
11 citations
,
January 2022 in “Theranostics” In this study, Wnt4 was identified as a key factor in cardiac repair, where its regulation in cardiac fibroblasts improved cardiac function and revascularization following ischemic reperfusion injury.
1 citations
,
November 2022 in “Burns & Trauma” In this study, researchers found that Wnt4 overexpression increased the thickness of burn wounds by promoting epidermal cell migration and activating the canonical Wnt signaling pathway.
December 2025 in “Cell Communication and Signaling” This study discovered that minoxidil affects hematopoiesis by downregulating wnt4, leading to suppression of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and alleviating MDS-like symptoms in zebrafish and mice, with hematologic safety achieved at optimized doses.
86 citations
,
July 2020 in “International Journal of Molecular Sciences” This review discusses the role of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in hair follicle regeneration and highlights recent progress in developing hair loss treatments targeting this pathway, but reports no new clinical results.
72 citations
,
April 2008 in “Organogenesis” This review discusses the roles of Wnt signaling in skin organogenesis and related processes but reports no new experimental results, highlighting areas for future research.
66 citations
,
July 2015 in “Organogenesis” This review summarizes recent findings on how Wnt signaling proteins play crucial roles in the cutaneous wound healing process but reports no new clinical results.
59 citations
,
November 2010 in “Circulation Research” This review discusses the potential role of Wnt signaling in aging-related heart diseases and reports no clinical results.
56 citations
,
February 2010 in “PLOS ONE” This study demonstrates that canonical Wnt signaling is crucial for maintaining thymic epithelial microenvironments in postnatal thymus, possibly by affecting TEC progenitor cells.
18 citations
,
May 2011 in “Journal of Investigative Dermatology” Wnt signaling affects the development and growth of Langerhans cells in mice.
11 citations
,
April 2022 in “International Journal of Molecular Sciences” This review discusses the role of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in skin wound repair and explores how photobiomodulation may affect chronic wound healing, but it reports no new clinical results.
21 citations
,
January 2023 in “The International Journal of Developmental Biology” This review examines the Wnt signaling pathway's role in regeneration across key model species, but it reports no new findings and highlights the need for more research to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms.
2 citations
,
January 2018 in “International Journal of Biochemistry & Physiology” This study identified two new Wnt genes, EsWnt1 and EsWnt4, in red starfish, with their expression patterns suggesting a role in wound healing and regeneration.
September 2025 in “Genes” In this study, researchers reported that specific gene polymorphisms in Jiangnan cashmere goats, particularly SNPs in the HOXC13 and WNT4 genes, were significantly associated with key economic traits like birth weight and yearling weight, providing molecular markers for breeding and enhancing economic trait stability.
44 citations
,
June 2017 in “The EMBO Journal” This study reports that the autotaxin–LPA–LPA3 signaling pathway at the embryo-epithelial boundary plays a critical role in decidualization by up-regulating HB-EGF and COX-2 in the uterine epithelium.
25 citations
,
February 2019 in “Genomics” This study reports that milk goats exhibit significantly more differentially expressed genes related to hair follicle cycling across different months compared to cashmere goats, especially in December.
25 citations
,
April 2015 in “Journal of Investigative Dermatology” This study found that Gsdma3 mutation in mice allows hair follicles to bypass a typical telogen phase and directly enter the anagen phase, suggesting Gsdma3's role in hair cycle transitions by regulating Wnt signaling.
7 citations
,
October 2022 in “Development” This study demonstrated that Wnt5a can serve as an orienting signal for mouse skin's planar cell polarity but its overexpression disrupts hair follicle orientation, which can be rescued by modifying Fzd6 levels.
5 citations
,
July 2022 in “Orphanet journal of rare diseases” This study found that RSPO1 mutations in patients with a 46XX disorder of sexual development contribute to impaired skin integrity and increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma in areas subject to friction.
2 citations
,
January 2017 in “International journal of genetics and genomics” This study identified specific miRNAs associated with hair follicle development in chicken embryos, highlighting miR-1623's involvement in regulating WNT4 and contributing to hair follicle cell growth.
1 citations
,
December 2023 in “The journal of investigative dermatology/Journal of investigative dermatology” This study found that manipulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling in embryonic mammary glands impacted their development, with high activity levels hindering branching and potentially redirecting cells toward hair follicle identity instead of mammary tissue.
In this study, researchers performed a genome-wide characterization of the Wnt gene family in domestic donkeys, identifying 19 genes and highlighting their evolutionary conservation among mammals, along with tissue-specific expression patterns potentially linked to reproductive regulation and tissue homeostasis.
November 2016 in “Elsevier eBooks” This chapter reviews genetic defects in female sexual differentiation, focusing on 46,XX disorders of sex development and the impact of genetic factors and sex steroids on development, but reports no new clinical findings.