Ligand for members of the frizzled family of seven transmembrane receptors that functions in the canonical Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway (PubMed: 18230341, PubMed: 20530549, PubMed: 23629626). Plays an important role in embryonic development, including dorsal versus ventral patterning during limb development, skeleton development and urogenital tract development (PubMed: 7885472, PubMed: 9769174, PubMed: 9790192). Required for central nervous system (CNS) angiogenesis and blood-brain barrier regulation (PubMed: 28803732). Required for normal, sexually dimorphic development of the Mullerian ducts, and for normal fertility in both sexes (PubMed: 9790192). Required for normal neural stem cell proliferation in the hippocampus dentate gyrus (PubMed: 23629626). Required for normal progress through the cell cycle in neural progenitor cells, for self-renewal of neural stem cells, and for normal neuronal differentiation and maturation (PubMed: 23629626). Promotes formation of synapses via its interaction with FZD5 (PubMed: 20530549).
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