Study of the canonical Wnt signaling activity in animals of different ages in the conditions of embryonic cardiac-specific β-catenin ablation.

Using conditional-knockout animals, we studied the expression of the genes involved in the canonical Wnt signaling pathway ( TCF-4, Axin-2) and the genes controlled by this signaling pathway ( c-fos, cyclin D1, c-myc, and Cx43) in the myocardium of mice under the condition of embryonic cardio-specific ablation of one allele of the β-catenin gene. The inhibition of the canonical Wnt signaling was observed in all age groups tested (1, 3, and 6 months). An analysis of the genes controlled by the canonical Wnt pathway allowed us to reveal changes of their expression in the tissue of animals with cardiac-specific β-catenin haploinsufficiency. The importance of a normally functioning canonical Wnt signaling for the growth and development of the adult heart is especially underlined in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]