Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are required for various signaling pathways, one of which is the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway. N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase-1 (NDST1) participates in synthesizing heparan sulfate (HS) chains of HSPGs, and is involved in bone and lung development. Here, we report that in spite of the redundant expression of Ndst2, Ndst3 and Ndst4 ge...

OBJECTIVE Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP-4) is a transforming growth factor beta family member cytokine that exerts proinflammatory effects on the endothelium and is likely to play a role in atherogenesis. Recent studies suggested that atheroprotective levels of shear stress control endothelial BMP-4 expression; however, the underlying mechanisms remained unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS We fo...

Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), a glycosylated protein, has been demonstrated to play a key role in osteoblast differentiation. However, the function of its glycosylation is incompletely understood. In this study, we examined the role that N-linked glycans (NLG) play in the secretion of BMP-2. Blocking the addition of NLGs or inhibiting initial glycan processing prevented the secretion of...

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) have been implicated in the development of bone metastases in prostate cancer. In this study, we investigated the role which BMP-9 played in prostate cancer and found that the expression of BMP-9 was decreased or absent in prostate cancer, particularly in the foci of higher grade disease. We further investigated the influence of BMP-9 on the biological behavior...

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) regulate many aspects of skeletal development, including osteoblast and chondrocyte differentiation, cartilage and bone formation, and cranial and limb development. Among them, BMP-2, one of the most potent osteogenic signaling molecules, stimulates osteoblast differentiation, while it inhibits myogenic differentiation in C2C12 cells. To evaluate genes involve...

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway signaling plays a critical role in extracellular growth and homeostasis, including basement membrane remodeling and long bone growth. In the small free-living nematode C. elegans, BMP signaling regulates body size development and drug response through an unknown physiological mechanism. Our lab and others have shown animals lacking BMP signaling (bmp(-))...

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are cytokines with strong ability to promote new bone formation. Herein, we report the use of silk fibroin microparticles as carriers for the delivery of BMP-2, BMP-9 or BMP-14. BMP-containing fibroin microparticles were prepared by a mild methodology using dropwise addition of ethanol, exhibiting mean diameters of 2.7 +/- 0.3 microm. Encapsulation efficiencie...

bone is formed through the processes of endochondral and intramembranous ossification. in endochondral ossification primary mesenchymal cells differentiate to chondrocytes and then are progressively substituted by bone, while in intramembranous ossification mesenchymal stem cells (mscs) differentiate directly into osteoblasts to form bone. the steps of osteogenic proliferation, differentiation,...

The facial primordia initially consist of buds of undifferentiated mesenchyme, which give rise to a variety of tissues including cartilage, muscle and nerve. These must be arranged in a precise spatial order for correct function. The signals that control facial outgrowth and patterning are largely unknown. The bone morphogenetic proteins Bmp-2 and Bmp-4 are expressed in discrete regions at the ...

Clonal cell line ATDC5 enables the monitoring of the early- and late-phase chondrogenic differentiation in a single culture. Undifferentiated ATDC5 cells differentiate into type II collagen expressing chondrocytes through a cellular condensation stage (early-phase differentiation) and then to type X collagen-expressing hypertrophic chondrocytes (late-phase differentiation). Progression of cellu...