Elevated levels of TGFb are a negative prognostic indicator for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; as a result, the TGFb pathway is an attractive target for therapy. However, clinical application of pharmacologic inhibition of TGFb remains challenging because TGFb has tumor suppressor functions in many epithelial malignancies, including pancreatic cancer. In fact, direct neutralization ...

Advanced tumors produce an excessive amount of transforming growth factor b (TGFb), which promotes tumor progression at late stages of malignancy. The purpose of this study was to develop anti-TGFb therapeutics for cancer. We synthesized a novel small-molecule TGFb receptor I kinase (activin receptor– like kinase 5) inhibitor termedN-[[4-([1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a]pyridin-6-yl)-5-(6-methylpyridin-2...

This study investigated the combined application of Transforming Growth Factor b-1 (TGFb-1) and Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 (BMP-2) to stimulate osteogenic expression in vitro. TGFb-1 and BMP-2 fulfill specific roles in the formation of new bone. COLLOSS E, a bone-derived collagen product containing a variety of naturally occurring growth factors, was also used. Growth factors were administere...

The TGFb-mediated alteration of the tumor microenvironment plays a crucial role in tumor progression. Mesothelial cells are the primary components of the tumor microenvironment for ovarian cancer cells; however, the exact role of TGFb-stimulatedmesothelial cells in ovarian cancer progression remains uncertain. In this report, we examined the effects of TGFb-treated mesothelial cells on ovarian ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) regulate the development of chronic pancreatitis (CP) and are activated by the cytokine transforming growth factor β (TGFB). Integrins of the αv family promote TGFB signaling in mice, probably by interacting with the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence of the TGFB latency-associated peptide, which frees TGFB to bind its cellular receptors. However, litt...

Lievens and colleagues report an important finding that helps to elucidate the role of transforming growth factor b (TGFb)b in atherosclerotic plaque formation. TGFb is a widely expressed cytokine produced by smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, monocytes, macrophages, and T cells. Clinical studies suggest that TGFb is antiatherosclerotic, citing a negative correlation between plasma TGFb co...

The role of Smad4 in transforming growth factor B (TGFB)– mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), invasion, and metastasis was investigated using isogenically matched pancreatic cancer cell lines that differed only in expression of Smad4. Cells expressing Smad4 showed an enhanced TGFBmediated EMT as determined by increased expression of vimentin and decreased expression of B-catenin a...

BACKGROUND: Successful blastocyst implantation requires the differentiation of human endometrial stromal cells (HESC), a process known as decidualization. Activin A, a transforming growth factor b (TGFb) superfamily member, enhances HESC decidualization and localizes to decidual cells in human endometrium. Other TGFb superfamily members, including BMP2, BMP4, BMP7, GDF5, GDF8, GDF11, TGFbs and ...

Transforming growth factor B (TGFB) plays a key role in maintaining tissue homeostasis by inducing cell cycle arrest, differentiation and apoptosis, and ensuring genomic integrity. Furthermore, TGFB orchestrates the response to tissue injury and mediates repair by inducing epithelial to mesenchymal transition and by stimulating cell motility and invasiveness. Although loss of the homeostatic ac...

Activation-induced cell death (AICD) is a process that regulates the size and the duration of the primary immune T cell response. In this report, we investigated the mechanisms involved in the regulation of AICD by transforming growth factor b 1 (TGFb 1). We found that TGFb 1 decreased apoptosis of human T cells or T cell hybridomas after activation by anti-CD3. This decrease was associated wit...