Mol. Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on February 17, 2009
Molecular Human Reproduction 2009 15(4):215-221; doi:10.1093/molehr/gap009
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Embryo–uterine cross-talk during implantation: the role of Wnt signaling


1State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China 2Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, People's Republic of China
3 Correspondence address. E-mail: hbwang{at}ioz.ac.cn (H.W.) or duane{at}ioz.ac.cn (E.D.)
During mammalian pregnancy, it has been demonstrated that the quality of embryo implantation determines the quality of ongoing pregnancy and fetal development. Recent studies have provided increasing evidence that differential Wnt signaling plays diverse roles in multiple peri-implantation events. This review focuses on recent progress on various aspects of Wnt signaling in preimplantation embryo development, blastocyst activation for implantation and uterine decidualization. Future studies with conditional deletion of Wnt family members are hoped to provide deeper insight on the pathophysiological significance of Wnt proteins on early pregnancy events.
Key words: Wnt signaling/preimplantation embryo development/blastocyst activation/implantation/decidualization
These authors contribute equally.
This paper was presented at the Beijing International Symposium on Reproductive Biology, October 2008.
Submitted on November 30, 2008; resubmitted on January 10, 2009; accepted on January 28, 2009.