Huanxiang Zhang
Medical College of Soochow University, China
Title: Beta-Catenin Signaling Regulates the Chemotactic Responses of Mesenchymal Stem Cells
Biography
Biography: Huanxiang Zhang
Abstract
Precise migration of stem cells is crucially important for embryonic development, homeostasis in adults, and tissue repair after injury. However, the detailed mechanisms of the directed migration of these cells are not clear. During the past few years, our study showed that the differentiating mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess different migratory capacity and the chemotactic responses of these cells correlates closely with their differentiation states. Accordingly, the formation and the asymmetrical distribution of focal adhesions (FAs) between the leading lamella and the cell rear, the phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and paxillin, as well as the turnover of FAs varies greatly in differentiating MSCs, leading to the most effective chemotactic responses of MSCs in certain differentiation states. Further, we demonstrated that signaling through PI3K/Akt and MAPKs are involved in regulating the directed migration of MSCs. More importantly, we found that beta-catenin signaling is prerequisite for the chemotactic migration of MSCs. In this talk, I will summarize our data regarding the regulatory effects of beta-catenin signaling on MSCs that undergo chemotaxis.