In cellular biology, paracrine signaling is a form of cell signaling, a type of cellular communication in which a cell produces a signal to induce changes in nearby cells, altering the behaviour of those cells. Signaling molecules known as paracrine factors diffuse over a relatively short distance, as opposed to cell signaling by endocrine factors, hormones which travel considerably longer distances via the circulatory system; juxtacrine interactions; and autocrine signaling. Cells that produce paracrine factors secrete them into the immediate extracellular environment. Factors then travel to nearby cells in which the gradient of factor received determines the outcome. However, the exact distance that paracrine factors can travel is not certain.
The Wnt signaling pathways are a group of signal transduction pathways which begin with proteins that pass signals into a cell through cell surface receptors. The name Wnt is a portmanteau created from the names Wingless and Int-1. Wnt signaling pathways use either nearby cell-cell communication (paracrine) or same-cell communication (autocrine). They are highly evolutionarily conserved in animals, which means they are similar across animal species from fruit flies to humans.
Frzb is a Wnt-binding protein especially important in embryonic development. It is a competitor for the cell-surface G-protein receptor Frizzled.
Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are the high-affinity cell surface receptors for many polypeptide growth factors, cytokines, and hormones. Of the 90 unique tyrosine kinase genes identified in the human genome, 58 encode receptor tyrosine kinase proteins. Receptor tyrosine kinases have been shown not only to be key regulators of normal cellular processes but also to have a critical role in the development and progression of many types of cancer. Mutations in receptor tyrosine kinases lead to activation of a series of signalling cascades which have numerous effects on protein expression. Receptor tyrosine kinases are part of the larger family of protein tyrosine kinases, encompassing the receptor tyrosine kinase proteins which contain a transmembrane domain, as well as the non-receptor tyrosine kinases which do not possess transmembrane domains.
The related to receptor tyrosine kinase (RYK) gene encodes the protein Ryk.
Frizzled-2(Fz-2) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD2 gene.
Frizzled-5(Fz-5) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD5 gene.
Frizzled-3(Fz-3) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD3 gene.
Frizzled-1(Fz-1) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD1 gene.
Frizzled-6(Fz-6) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD6 gene.
Frizzled-7(Fd-7) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD7 gene.
Frizzled-8(Fz-8) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD8 gene.
Frizzled-9(Fz-9) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD9 gene. Fz-9 has also been designated as CD349.
Frizzled-10(Fz-10) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FZD10 gene. Fz-10 has also been designated as CD350.
Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) also known as G-protein coupled receptor 49 (GPR49) or G-protein coupled receptor 67 (GPR67) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the LGR5 gene. It is a member of GPCR class A receptor proteins. R-spondin proteins are the biological ligands of LGR5. LGR5 is expressed across a diverse range of tissue such as in the muscle, placenta, spinal cord and brain and particularly as a biomarker of adult stem cells in certain tissues.
Secreted frizzled-related protein 1, also known as SFRP1, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the SFRP1 gene.
Tyrosine-protein kinase-like 7 also known as colon carcinoma kinase 4 (CCK4) is a receptor tyrosine kinase that in humans is encoded by the PTK7 gene.
Planar cell polarity (PCP) is the protein-mediated signaling that coordinates the orientation of cells in a layer of epithelial tissue. In vertebrates, examples of mature PCP oriented tissue are the stereo-cilia bundles in the inner ear, motile cilia of the epithelium, and cell motility in epidermal wound healing. Additionally, PCP is known to be crucial to major developmental time points including coordinating convergent extension during gastrulation and coordinating cell behavior for neural tube closure. Cells orient themselves and their neighbors by establishing asymmetric expression of PCP components on opposing cell members within cells to establish and maintain the directionality of the cells. Some of these PCP components are transmembrane proteins which can proliferate the orientation signal to the surrounding cells.
Dishevelled (Dsh) is a family of proteins involved in canonical and non-canonical Wnt signalling pathways. Dsh is a cytoplasmic phosphoprotein that acts directly downstream of frizzled receptors. It takes its name from its initial discovery in flies, where a mutation in the dishevelled gene was observed to cause improper orientation of body and wing hairs. There are vertebrate homologs in zebrafish, Xenopus (Xdsh), mice and humans. Dsh relays complex Wnt signals in tissues and cells, in normal and abnormal contexts. It is thought to interact with the SPATS1 protein when regulating the Wnt Signalling pathway.
In molecular biology, the protein domain, WIF N-terminal refers to the N terminal domain of the protein, WIF. It stands for, Wnt-inhibitory factor, whereby wnt is a signalling molecule also known as wingless. Wnt is a molecule in the wnt signaling pathway. The WIF domain binds to the wnt ligand since it inhibits it.
