Neural crest는 신경계의 발생과정에서 생긴 특정화된 외배엽으로서 말초신경계(peripheral nervous system)의 모든 sensory cells과 peripheral cells, unipolar spinal ganglion cell, cranial sensory ganglia, peripheral nerve의 neurolemmal sheath cells, ganglia의 capsule cells, sympathetic ganglia, chromaffin cells, pigment cell 등의 자율신 경계의 대부분의 세포로 분화 한다. 최근pluripotetic neural crest cells의 운명이 이미 제한되어 있으며, 이러한 fate-restricted crest cells이 neural tube에서 emigration된다고 보고된바 있다. 또한 본 연구자는 Wnt와 Wnt의 antagonist가 neural crest cell의 specification이 일어나는 시기에 발현하여, neural crest cell의 segregation과 differentiation에 직접적으로 관여함을 밝혔다. 이를 보다 명확히 규명하기 위해, 본 연구에서는 neural tube에 Wnt-3a expressing cell의 grafting 혹은 dominant negative GSK construct의 electroporation을 통해 Wnt signaling을 modulation 하여 downstream mediator를 조사하였다. Wnt signaling의 stimulation은 neural crest cell의 melanoblast 로의 commitment를 유도하였으며, 이와 더불어 cadherin 7과 slug의 발현을 조절함을 확인하였다.
Recent evidence has shown that many pluripotetic neural crest cells are fate-restricted and that different fate-restricted crest cells emigrate from the neural tube at different times. Jin et al. (2001) identified the expression patterns of Wnts and its antagonists at the time that neural crest cells were being specified and suggested that Wnt signaling was involved in the segregation/differentiation of neural crest cells in the trunk in vitro. In this study, we evaluated the effects of Wnt signaling in avian neural crest lineage segregation. To accomplish this, Wnt signaling was disturbed at the time of neural crest segregation and differentiation by grafting Wnt-3a expressing cells and conducting dominant negative glycogen synthase kinase (dnGSK) electroporation. Stimulation of Wnt signaling induced neural crest lineage segregation and melanoblast specification, and increased the expression levels of genes known to be involved in neural crest development such as cadherin 7 and Slug, which suggests that they are involved in Wnt-induced neural crest lineage differentiation into melanoblasts.
