title: The Discovery and Early Days of TGF-β: A Historical Perspective.
abstract: Transforming growth factors (TGFs) were discovered as activities that were secreted by cancer cells, and later by normal cells, and had the ability to phenotypically and reversibly transform immortalized fibroblasts. TGF-β distinguished itself from TGF-α because it did not bind to the same epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor as TGF-α and, therefore, acted through different cell-surface receptors and signaling mediators. This review summarizes the discovery of TGF-β, the early developments in its molecular and biological characterization with its many biological activities in different cell and tissue contexts and its roles in disease, the realization that there is a family of secreted TGF-β-related proteins with many differentiation functions in development and activities in normal cell and tissue physiology, and the subsequent identification and characterization of the receptors and effectors that mediate TGF-β family signaling responses.
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37232.
authors.forename: Harold L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Moses
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Regulation and Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
authors.forename: Anita B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143.
authors.forename: Rik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Derynck
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta