Differential Expression of Wnt-pathway in Late Fetal Ovine Heart and Lung Development

Abstract

Wnt signalling pathways critical to early cardiogenesis have not been extensively studied in sheep. The activity of Wnt signalling during the rapid heart growth occurring between late‐fetal and early newborn development is not known but may be important given that a right ventricular (RV) functional dominance occurs in utero, but a left ventricular (LV) dominance after birth. Thus our aims were to measure cardiopulmonary changes in 7 key proteins (Wnt3a, Wnt5a, Dvl‐1, phospho‐GSK3β, cdc42, ROCK2 and TCF7L2) and genes (Wnt4 and Wnt7b) in the Wnt signalling pathway in fetal and neonatal sheep. Lung, ventricular and atrial samples from pre‐term (age=128‐129 days; term=147 days), near‐term fetal..