New discovery: The journey of WNT5A across the developing brain in mice and men

Alena Salasova, a postdoc in Anders Nykjær's group, is co-author of new article published in Nature Communications on April 2 . The paper entitled "WNT5A is transported via lipoprotein particles in the cerebrospinal fluid to regulate hindbrain morphogenesis" describes a novel mechanism of how is a key morphogen WNT5A secreted from choroid plexus in developing hindbrain, and subsequently transported across long distances via cerebralspinal fluid towards the responsive progenitor cells.This unexpected finding stands against the dogma that WNTs control the tissue only locally, and it deepens our understanding about how WNT5A regulates the brain development and its compartmentization in mice and men.