title: Bone Morphogenetic Proteins.
abstract: Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), originally identified as osteoinductive components in extracts derived from bone, are now known to play important roles in a wide array of processes during formation and maintenance of various organs including bone, cartilage, muscle, kidney, and blood vessels. BMPs and the related "growth and differentiation factors" (GDFs) are members of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) family, and transduce their signals through type I and type II serine-threonine kinase receptors and their intracellular downstream effectors, including Smad proteins. Furthermore, BMP signals are finely tuned by various agonists and antagonists. Because deregulation of the BMP activity at multiple steps in signal transduction is linked to a wide variety of human diseases, therapeutic use of activators and inhibitors of BMP signaling will provide potential avenues for the treatment of the human disorders that are caused by hypo- and hyperactivation of BMP signals, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pathophysiology, Research Center for Genomic Medicine, Saitama Medical University, Hidaka-shi, Saitama 350-1241, Japan.
authors.forename: Takenobu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Katagiri
authors.affiliation: Section of Biochemistry, Department of Bio-Matrix, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8549, Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watabe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051785:Smad Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000378:metabolism; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D051785:Smad Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases