%0 Journal Article %T Wnt signal transduction pathway and apoptosis: a review %A Nives Pe£żina-£żlaus %J Cancer Cell International %D 2010 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1475-2867-10-22 %X The activity of wnt signaling according to specific cellular environment stimuli can either foster or restrain the processes of apoptosis. Wnt signaling regulates the early and late stages of apoptosis in both development and cellular injury in populations of neurons, endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes.In this review I draw attention to genes and proteins of the wnt signaling pathway involved in apoptosis and describe some of their functional effects.The process of apoptosis has a critical role for the survival of an organism and is functionally conserved in all higher eukaryotes, while the disregulation of apoptosis has been implicated in many different diseases. Impairment of normal apoptosis can lead to cancer or autoimmune disease [1], while too much apoptosis causes neurodegenerative and neuromuscular disease where progressive loss of neurons occurs due to apoptosis [1-3].Association between the wnt signaling pathway and apoptosis has become increasingly established through recent reports in the literature. Genes in both the apoptotic and wnt pathways are activated in a successive coordinated fashion throughout embryonic development. Wnt signaling is essential in development because it acts as a regulator of the embryonic cell patterning, proliferation, differentiation, cell adhesion, cell survival and apoptosis. It is especially important in the development of the central nervous system because processes that include synaptic rearrangements require the expression of molecular components of the wnt pathway [4]. The pathway regulates the normal development of the neural plate and neural tube, and later of the brain, spinal cord, and numerous sensory and motor neurons [5-7]. In addition to neural tissues, wnt pathway is also critical for sound vascular and cardiac systems development [8]. Furthermore, wnt signaling modulates most aspects of osteoblast physiology, including bone cell apoptosis [9].The mechanisms of apoptosis have pr %U http://www.cancerci.com/content/10/1/22