Control of the thickness of the arterial wall is critical, as excessive overgrowth of constituent smooth muscle cells (SMCs) may interfere with blood flow. Effects on SMCs in vitro of several growth factors that are present in blood and/or that are produced endogenously in the arterial wall under certain conditions suggest that influences of endocrine, paracrine, and autocrine nature from stimu...

Transforming growth factor type beta (TGF-beta), when injected subcutaneously in newborn mice, causes formation of granulation tissue (induction of angiogenesis and activation of fibroblasts to produce collagen) at the site of injection. These effects occur within 2-3 days at dose levels than 1 microgram. Parallel in vitro studies show that TGF-beta causes marked increase of either proline or l...

In culture, vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) grow in a "hill-and-valley" (multilayered) pattern of organization. We have studied the growth, behavioral organization, and biosynthetic phenotype of rat aortic SMC exposed to purified platelet-derived growth regulatory molecules. We show that multilayered growth is not a constitutive feature of cultured SMC, and that beta-type transforming growth...

Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) and TGF-beta-related proteins, such as the bone morphogenetic proteins, have emerged as key regulators of stem cell renewal and differentiation. These proteins have disparate roles in regulating the biology of embryonic stem cells and tumor suppression, and they help define the selection of cell fate and the progression of differentiation along a linea...

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), a potent inducer of angiogenesis in vivo, stimulates the production of both urokinase- and tissue-type plasminogen activators (PAs) in cultured bovine capillary endothelial cells. The observed increase in proteolytic activity induced by bFGF was effectively diminished by picogram amounts of transforming growth factor beta (TGF beta), but could not be aboli...

The effects of recombinant basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) on migration of human and bovine corneal cells were determined using checkerboard analysis in Boyden chambers. EGF, FGF, and TGF-beta each stimulated high levels of chemotactic migration. Each growth factor, however, induced a different dose-response pat...

The control of smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation is determined by the combined actions of mitogens, such as platelet-derived growth factor, and the opposing action of growth inhibitory agents, such as heparin and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta). The present studies identify an interaction between heparin and TGF-beta in which heparin potentiates the biological action of TGF-beta...

Chronic wounds are that fail to progress through the normal stages of healing and remain open for an extended period time. These often require specialized treatment approaches. While genes involved in wound play important roles chronic as well, specific genetic factors contributing still being studied. Some have been implicated their potential include Transforming Growth Factor-Beta (TGF-β) Fam...

We sought to characterize the pathway by which the multifunctional cytokine transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) inhibits the proliferation of normal astrocytes, and we analyzed the alterations in the TGF-beta pathway in human glioma cell lines. Upon TGF-beta treatment, primary rat astrocytes showed a significant decrease in DNA synthesis upon thymidine incorporation with a cell cycle arr...