Although Shh, TGF-β and BMP-4 regulate radial patterning of the bladder mesenchyme and smooth muscle differentiation, it is not known what transcription factors, local environmental cues or signaling cascades mediate bladder smooth muscle differentiation. We investigated the expression patterns of signaling mediated by Smad2 and Smad3 in the mouse embryonic bladder from E12.5 to E16.5 by using ...

BACKGROUND Posterior capsular opacification (PCO) is a common complication of cataract surgery. Transforming growth factor-β2 (TGF-β2) plays important roles in the development of PCO. The existing pharmacological treatments are not satisfactory and can have toxic side effects. METHODOLOGIES/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We evaluated the effect of pirfenidone on proliferation, migration and epithlial-mes...

Familial forms of human pulmonary arterial hypertension (FPAH) have been linked to mutations in bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type II receptors (BMPR2s), yet the downstream targets of these receptors remain obscure. Here we show that pulmonary vascular lesions from patients harboring BMPR2 mutations express high levels of tenascin-C (TN-C), an extracellular matrix glycoprotein that promotes ...

Renal fibrosis is a hallmark of chronic kidney disease (CKD). It is generally thought that transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is a key mediator of fibrosis and mediates renal scarring positively by Smad2 and Smad3, but negatively by Smad7. Our recent studies found that in CKD, TGF-β1 is not a sole molecule to activate Smads. Many mediators such as angiotensin II and advanced glycation end p...

The MAD-related (MADR) family includes the sma-2, These proteins are highly Division of Gastroenterology conserved across species, but have no known structural The Hospital for Sick Children motifs and bear no resemblance to components of other Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8 signaling pathways. All members of the family share Canada certain structural domains including the highly con-† Millennium Pha...

Although anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is present in seminiferous tubules, its physiological roles in testis remain unclear. We defined expression patterns of AMH and its type II receptor (AMHR2) in germ cells during spermatogenic cycles. To this end, we performed in situ hybridization of Amh and Amhr2, and immunohistochemical staining using antibodies against AMH and AMHR2 in testes from rats a...

BACKGROUND Recent studies indicate that Transforming Growth Factor beta (TGF β) correlated with pulmonary metastasis of cancers. However, the correlation between TGF β and pulmonary metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is till unknown. METHODS We detected the in vitro and in vivo expression levels of TGF β1/Smads by Real-time PCR and Western blot in MHCC97-H and MHCC97-L cell lines, w...

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a major form of heart disease that leads to immediate cardiomyocyte death due to ischemia and eventually fibrosis and scar formation and further dysfunction of myocardium and heart failure. Extracellular matrix (ECM) production and tissue repair is conducted by myofibroblasts, which are formed from the normal quiescent cardiac fibroblasts following transformational...