PURPOSE Continuous culture of limbal epithelial stem cells (LSCs) slows down proliferation, which inevitably results in differentiation. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ)-assisted epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is often found in the late stage of LSC culture. Thus, EMT is proposed to be part of the mechanism responsible for the loss of LSCs in culture. To explore the regulation me...

Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) can act either as a tumor promoter or a tumor suppressor in a context-dependent manner. High levels of TGFβ are found in prostate cancer tissues and correlate with poor patient prognosis. We recently identified a novel TGFβ-regulated signaling cascade in which TGFβ type I receptor (TβRI) is activated by the E3 ligase TNF-receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) v...

In Caenorhabditis elegans, satiety quiescence mimics behavioral aspects of satiety and postprandial sleep in mammals. On the basis of calcium-imaging, genetics, and behavioral studies, here we report that a pair of amphid neurons, ASI, is activated by nutrition and regulates worms' behavioral states specifically promoting satiety quiescence; ASI inhibits the switch from quiescence to dwelling (...

Myelofibrosis is an indicator of poor prognosis in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), but the precise mechanism(s) contributing to extracellular matrix remodeling and collagen deposition in the bone marrow (BM) niche remains unanswered. In this study, we isolated mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from mice transplanted with wild-type thrombopoietin receptor (MPLWT) and MPLW515L retroviral-tran...

BACKGROUND BAMBI is a type I TGFβ receptor antagonist, whose in vivo function remains unclear, as BAMBI(-/-) mice lack an obvious phenotype. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Identifying BAMBI's functions requires identification of cell-specific expression of BAMBI. By immunohistology we found BAMBI expression restricted to endothelial cells and by electron microscopy BAMBI(-/-) mice showed prom...

The non-histone chromatin-binding protein HMGA2 is expressed predominantly in the mesenchyme before its differentiation, but it is also expressed in tumors of epithelial origin. Ectopic expression of HMGA2 in epithelial cells induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which has been implicated in the acquisition of metastatic characters in tumor cells. However, little is known about in vi...

TGFβ signaling plays a central role in the development of acute and chronic kidney diseases. Previous in vivo studies involved systemic alteration of TGFβ signaling, however, limiting conclusions about the direct role of TGFβ in tubular cell injury. Here, we generated a double transgenic mouse that inducibly expresses a ligand-independent constitutively active TGFβ receptor type 1 (TβR1) kinase...

Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) signaling regulates cell cycle progression in several cell types, primarily by inducing a G1 cell cycle arrest. Tgif1 is a transcriptional corepressor that limits TGFβ responsive gene expression. Here we demonstrate that primary mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) lacking Tgif1 proliferate slowly, accumulate increased levels of DNA damage, and senesce prematurely...