COL8A2 and Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy: Additionally, Roof plate-specific spondin 1 (R-spondin1), a LGR5 ligand, accelerates corneal endothelial cell proliferation and inhibits EnMT through the Wnt pathway (Okumura et al., 2014a) By contrast, siRNA knockdown of COL8A2, a gene that is mutated in early-onset FECD, resulted in Wnt pathway signaling disruption reduced proliferation and fibroblastic transformation indicating both the importance of COL8A2 for corneal endothelial cell function as well as an opportunity to target Wnt pathway mediators in this disease (Hwang et al., 2020).