Wnt-16b Products

Description

Wnt‑16 is a 40 kDa protein within the Wnt family of secreted, highly conserved, cysteine‑rich, palmitoylated cell signaling glycoproteins that play important roles in vertebrate developmental pattern formation, cell fate decision, axon guidance, and tumor formation (1‑3). Wnt‑16a and Wnt‑16b isoforms in humans differ in the signal sequence and the first two amino acids (aa) of the mature protein (2, 3). Wnt‑16b is the more conserved isoform and is widely expressed, while Wnt‑16a is expressed mainly in the human pancreas (3). Mature human Wnt‑16b shares 92%, 93%, and 95% aa sequence identity with mouse/rat, rabbit/porcine/equine, and bovine Wnt‑16, respectively. Wnt‑16 expression is detected on uterine stroma adjacent to the luminal epithelium during implantation (4). It is up‑regulated during the first embryonic lymphoid progenitor differentiation (5). Congenital heart defects correlate with elevated Wnt‑16 in mouse embryos and human amniotic fluid (6). Low cortical bone thickness and bone mineral density correlate with deletion of Wnt‑16 in mice and a Wnt‑16 missense SNP in humans (7). Wnt‑16 is over‑expressed in cells undergoing replicative senescence, and is up‑regulated in articular cartilage by injury and osteoarthritis (8, 9). Wnt‑16b expression in skin is up‑regulated in human basal cell carcinomas, enhancing cell survival (10). Its expression is also up‑regulated by DNA damage (radiation and chemotherapy) in stroma surrounding prostate tumors, causing enhanced survival and treatment resistance in the tumor cells (11). Pre‑B acute lymphoblastic leukemia with t(1;19) translocation, creating an E2A‑Pbx1 fusion protein, also causes up‑regulation of Wnt‑16 that confers resistance to apoptosis (12, 13). Wnt‑16 signaling through both canonical and JNK‑mediated (non‑canonical) pathways is reported (8‑10).

Bioinformatics

Uniprot	Q9UBV4 Human
Product By Gene ID	51384
Alternate Names	AHCP WNT16 Wnt16b Wnt-16b