The present study aimed to explore the underlying developmental mechanism of mothers against decapentaplegic homolog (Smad) signaling in the development of mandibular condylar cartilage. To achieve this, the expression levels of Smad2, 3, 4 and 7, and phosphorylated Smad2/3 were investigated at different time points in developing mandibular condylar cartilage. Mandibular condyles from C57BL/6J ...

NF1 (nuclear factor 1) binds to two upstream elements of the human ANT2 (adenine nucleotide translocator-2) promoter and actively represses expression of the gene in growth-arrested diploid skin fibroblasts [Luciakova, Barath, Poliakova, Persson and Nelson (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, 30624-30633]. ChIP (chromatin immunoprecipitation) and co-immunoprecipitation analyses of nuclear extracts from g...

TGF-β regulates pleiotropic cellular responses including cell growth, differentiation, migration, apoptosis, extracellular matrix production, and many other biological processes. Although non-Smad signaling pathways are being increasingly reported to play many roles in TGF-β-mediated biological processes, Smads, especially receptor-regulated Smads (R-Smads), still play a central mediatory role ...

TGF-β (transforming growth factor-β) and BMP-7 (bone morphogenetic protein-7), two key members in the TGF-β superfamily, play important but diverse roles in CKDs (chronic kidney diseases). Both TGF-β and BMP-7 share similar downstream Smad signalling pathways, but counter-regulate each other to maintain the balance of their biological activities. During renal injury in CKDs, this balance is sig...

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays an important role in renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis and TGF-beta1 is the key inducer of EMT. Phosphorylation of Smad proteins and/or mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) is required for TGF-beta1-induced EMT. Because reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in TGF-beta1 signaling and are upstream signaling molecules to MAPK, this study exam...

Smad proteins transduce transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signals that regulate cell growth and differentiation. We have identified YY1, a transcription factor that positively or negatively regulates transcription of many genes, as a novel Smad-interacting protein. YY1 represses the induction of immediate-early genes to TGF-beta and BMP, such as the...

Caffeine administration is an important part of the therapeutic treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants. However, caffeine mediated effects on airway remodelling are still undefined. The TGF-β/Smad signalling pathway is one of the key pathways involved in airway remodelling. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a downstream mediator of TGF-β, and transgelin, a bindin...

Scarring of the glomerular and tubulointerstitial compartments is a hallmark of progressive kidney disease and is considered a common pathway leading to end-stage of renal failure. Renal fibrosis involves a complex interplay between intrinsic kidney cells, leukocytes, and fibroblasts in which transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) plays a key role. Inhibition of TGF-β1 suppresses renal fibrosis i...

Abstract Background and Aims Inflammatory Interstitial fibrosis tubular atrophy (i-IF/TA) is a prominent histological lesion reported in late biopsy poorly associated with graft survival. Cytotoxic T cell secrets Granzyme-B, which cleaves cytoskeleton protein, activates pro-IL-1β, TGF-β into their active form, leading to inflammation, fibrosis, the apoptosis target cell. The association of Gran...