Protein Wnt-10b (formerly Wnt12) is a

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

that in humans is encoded by the ''WNT10B''

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

. The WNT gene family consists of structurally related genes that encode secreted

signaling proteins In biology, cell signaling (cell signalling in British English) or cell communication is the ability of a cell to receive, process, and transmit signals with its environment and with itself. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellula ...

. These proteins have been implicated in

oncogenesis Carcinogenesis, also called oncogenesis or tumorigenesis, is the formation of a cancer, whereby normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. The process is characterized by changes at the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic levels and abnor ...

and in several developmental processes, including regulation of cell fate and patterning during

embryogenesis An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm ...

. This gene is a member of the WNT gene family. It may be involved in

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

, and its protein signaling is, it is presumed, a molecular switch that governs

adipogenesis Adipogenesis is the formation of adipocytes (fat cells) from stem cells. It involves 2 phases, determination, and terminal differentiation. Determination is mesenchymal stem cells committing to the adipocyte precursor cells, also known as preadipocy ...

. Gain-of-function of Wnt10b in mouse hearts has shown to improve cardiac tissue repair after

myocardial Cardiac muscle (also called heart muscle, myocardium, cardiomyocytes and cardiac myocytes) is one of three types of vertebrate muscle tissues, with the other two being skeletal muscle and smooth muscle. It is an involuntary, striated muscle that ...

injury, by promoting

coronary vessel Coronary circulation is the circulation of blood in the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle (myocardium). Coronary arteries supply oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. Cardiac veins then drain away the blood after it has been deoxygenat ...

formation and attenuating pathological fibrosis.Paik DT, Rai M, Ryzhov S, Sanders LN, Aisagbonhi O, Funke MJ, Feoktistov I, Hatzopoulos AK. Wnt10b gain-of-function improves cardiac repair by arteriole formation and attenuation of fibrosis. Circ Res. 2015; 117:804-816. This protein is 96% identical to the mouse Wnt10b protein at the

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...

level. This gene is clustered with another family member, WNT1, in the chromosome 12q13 region.

References

Further reading