Association Study of Wnt Signaling Pathway Genes in Bipolar Disorder

Abstract

Wnt proteins are a family of molecules that locally activate cell signaling pathways, which regulate cell fate and play an important role in development.1 Aberrations in these pathways have been implicated in a number of chronic diseases, such as cancer. There are several lines of evidence to suggest that these pathways may also be involved in the etiology of bipolar disorder.2 First, Wnt signaling pathways influence neuroplasticity, cell survival, and adult neurogenesis, and recent studies have suggested that bipolar disorder may involve impairments in these functions. For example, Wnt7a was found to be critical to axon and growth cone remodeling in the cerebellum3; mice with inactivated Wnt1 genes failed to develop large portions of their brain4; and Wnt3 increased neurogenesis in the adult rat hippocampus.5