The Wnt family includes several secreted glycoproteins that play important roles in animal development (1). There are 19 Wnt genes in the human genome that encode functionally distinct Wnt proteins (2). Wnt members bind to the Frizzled family of seven-pass transmembrane proteins and activate several signaling pathways (3). The canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway also requires a coreceptor from the low-density lipoprotein receptor family (4). Aberrant activation of Wnt signaling pathways is involved in several types of cancers (5).
Wnt3a protein is palmitoylated and can function as a growth factor for hematopoietic stem cells (6). Although functionally distinct, Wnt3a shows high homology to Wnt3 (7).
