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Journal of Public Health Policy and Planning | Volume: 2
August 27-28, 2018 | London, UK
International Conference on
Healthcare and Health Management
Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
Joint Event
&
T
he heart is the first organ that forms and functions during
embryonic development and is one of the organs most
closely related to human health. In the early 1990’s, the author
was the first to demonstrate that canonical Wnt signaling
controls the embryonic heart development using fruit fly
model, and thus the signaling was introduced into the cardiac
development field. Our finding was further proved by other
studies with vertebrate models such as Xenopus, zebrafish
and mice. Nowadays, Wnt signaling has become one of the
most important signaling pathways in the cardiac development
field. However, it was found that studies with different animal
models and even in the same animal model can lead to
opposed findings. For example, the author demonstrated that
canonical Wnt signaling promotes cardiac development in
Drosophila, while the others showed that it inhibits the heart
development in vertebrate. The two contradictory conclusions
about the role of canonical Wnt signaling in the regulation of
heart development were not solved until 2007. However, in the
same year, it emerged as a new paradox that canonical Wnt
signaling activates or inhibits cellular aging. We performed a
genomic screen with Drosophila P- and chemical mutagenesis
and obtained several candidates such as pygo (pygopus), Nulp1
(the nuclear localized protein-1) and SMRHD (super master
regulator of heart development). Pygo is a new member of
canonical Wnt signaling, but unexpectedly, its role in adult heart
aging is independent of canonical Wnt signaling. We reported
that Nulp1 may act as a novel bHLH transcriptional factor to
mediate cellular functions. Our recent findings revealed a new
in vivo function of Nulp1 to act as a positive cofactor in canonical
Wnt signaling. Unexpectedly, the role of SMRHD is likely to act
as a negative switch in canonical Wnt signaling expression. Here
our studies on the candidates of the canonical Wnt signaling for
cardiac development and aging will be discussed based on our
recent findings.
Speaker Biography
Xiushan Wu completed his PhD from Stockholm University in 1986-1990, postdoctoral
studies from Michegan University and etc in 1990-1994 and Scientist in Karolinska
Institute in 1994-2000. He is the Director and Professor of The Center for Heart
Development, Hunan Normal University. His research focuses on understanding the
mechanisms by which embryonic heart is developed using Drosophila, zebrafish and
mice as models. He has published more than 350 papers including over 110 SCI papers.
e:
xiushanwu@yahoo.comXiushan Wu
College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, China
Novel members of the Wnt/β-Catenin pathway in heart development and aging