Maintaining embryonic stem cell pluripotency with Wnt signaling

Wnt signaling pathways control lineage specification in vertebrate embryos and regulate pluripotency in embryonic stem (ES) cells, but how the balance between progenitor self-renewal and differentiation is achieved during axis specification and tissue patterning remains highly controversial. The context-and stage-specific effects of the different Wnt pathways produce complex and sometimes opposite outcomes that help to generate embryonic cell diversity. Although the results of recent studies of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in ES cells appear to be surprising and controversial, they converge on the same conserved mechanism that leads to the inactivation of TCF3-mediated repression.