SUMMARY. Wnt/β-catenin signaling exerts great and diverse influence on the formation, development and vital activity of a great number of vertebrate tissues, including heart tissue. The role of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and β-catenin itself in the processes of cardiogenesis and adult myocardium functioning is not fully elucidated to date. In the current review we made the attempt to generalize data from up-to-date literature dealing with participation of this signaling pathway in embryogenesis and postnatal heart development as well as in adult myocardium functioning in normal conditions and during stress adaptation, aging, resulting in hypertrophy and heart remodeling. Based on the experimental articles and reviews we can assume that Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is involved not only in controlling the cardiogenesis but in processes of adaptation and remodeling of adult organ, too. This control can be characterized as complicated and multistep and β-catenin appears to be a perspective candidate for new approaches development for the adult myocardium pathologies therapy.
Keywords: cardiogenesis, differentiation, myocardium, signaling regulation, β-catenin, Wnt signaling, stem cells, myocardium pathologies, hypertrophy, regeneration
