Expression pattern of the Wnt family during orofacial development in the chicken embryo *
The expression pattern of the secretion glycoprotein Wnt family during orofacial development in the chicken embryo was observed by in situ hybridization. From among the 19 members of the Wnt family, Wnt-3a, Wnt-5a, Wnt-10a, and Wnt-11 were expressed in the processes during orofacial development in the embryo. Wnt-5a was strongly expressed in the mesenchymal cells in the distal region of the facial processes. Expression of Wnt-11was restricted to the region where the processes fuse with each other at later stage. Wnt-3a and Wnt-10a were expressed broadly in the surface ectoderm of the processes. These spatio-temporal expression patterns suggest that these Wnt proteins play important roles in skeletal and muscular differentiation.(Accepted on September ８，2005)
