Recombinant Human Wnt-11 Protein

Wnt‑11 belongs to the Wnt family of secreted, highly conserved, cysteine-rich cell signaling glycoproteins that play important roles in vertebrate developmental pattern formation, cell fate decision, axon guidance, and tumor formation (1-3). Mature human Wnt‑11 shares 98% amino acid (aa) sequence identity with mouse, rat and bovine Wnt‑11, and 99%, 96% and 88% aa identity with canine, equine and chick Wnt‑11, respectively. Mouse Wnt‑11 is expressed in early development during gastrulation and in the perichondrium, lung mesenchyme and ureteric buds, but not in neuroepithelium (1). It is required for cardiogenesis, organization of early muscle fibers, and branching morphogenesis of ureters (3-7). It is also expressed in several human cancers (2). In vitro, Wnt‑11 has been shown to induce cardiomyocyte differentiation from unfractionated mouse bone marrow mononuclear cells, and to promote hematopoietic differentiation from human embryoid body stem cells by engaging Frizzled-7 in the presence of E-cadherin (6, 8). In general, there are three signaling pathways associated with Wnt‑receptor interaction. The canonical pathway results in beta-Catenin accumulation and TCF/LEF‑1‑mediated gene transcription. Non‑canonical pathways include the Wnt/Ca²⁺ pathway and the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway. Wnt‑11 often, but not exclusively, signals by a non‑canonical pathway and may repress canonical signaling by other Wnts (2, 9). However, when complexed with Wnt‑5a, Wnt‑11 can also enhance canonical signaling (10).