| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Articles |
Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, University of Texas Health Science Center (L.F.B., R.O.C.O., C.H.L., S.P.-S., G.R.M.), and Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital (L.F.B.), San Antonio, Texas 78284; and Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute (D.T.), Seattle, Washington 98121
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. L. F. Bonewald, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, University of Texas Health Science Center, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78284-7877.
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
TGFß is secreted by cells in culture in biologically latent forms that can be activated in vitro by transient acidification, alkalinization, or the actions of chaotropic agents (9, 10). The release of mature TGFß 25-kDa homodimer from the latent complex is necessary for TGFß to exert its effects on target cells. Many cell types have been shown to activate latent TGFß (LTGFß) depending upon other factors present in the cellular environment. Cell types that have been shown to activate LTGFß include macrophages, mesenchymal cells, endothelial cells, cocultures of endothelial cells with pericytes or smooth muscle cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, fetal fibroblasts, and human osteoblast-like cells (for review, see Refs. 11 and 12). We and others have shown that osteoclasts will activate LTGFß (13, 14).
In contrast to the in vitro cell culture systems used to study activation of LTGFß, we have shown the activation of LTGFß in vivo in lungs of mice infected with the pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis (15). Also, we have described a noncellular mechanism by which LTGFß is activated by extracellular organelles called matrix vesicles (16). Matrix vesicles found in cartilage are associated with matrix calcification. Alone, these organelles have no effect on LTGFß; however, upon pretreatment of these organelles with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, both recombinant LTGFß1 (rLTGFß1) and rLTGFß2 are activated. Matrix vesicles have been shown to contain proteases such as plasminogen activator, and therefore, the nongenomic effect of 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D3 on the membranes of these organelles may be the release of TGFß-activating proteases.
The composition of LTGFß secreted by cells appears to vary depending on tissue type. The first latent complex described is produced by platelets (17, 18). This complex contains TGFß1 precursor or latency-associated protein (LAP) noncovalently associated with mature TGFß and a truncated form of the LTGFß-binding protein (LTBP) covalently attached to one of the precursor chains. Fibroblasts, liver fat-storing cells, and other cell types produce a similar complex, but with the nontruncated LTBP (19, 20, 21). Bone cells produce at least three forms of LTGFß: one composed of only the TGFß1 precursor noncovalently associated with mature TGFß of 100 kDa (also known as small LTGFß), one that contains the TGFß precursor covalently associated with mature TGFß of 100 kDa (also known as the noncleaved, nonacid-dissociable form), and a third complex containing the 100-kDa form covalently bound to the nontruncated form of LTBP similar to that described in fibroblasts (also known as large LTGFß) (22, 23). The complex lacking LTBP appears identical to rLTGFß. Kidney cells appear to secrete five different forms of LTGFß (21). Although not completely characterized, several of these complexes appear to be composed of TGFß1 and of TGFß2, which is in contrast to the bone, fibroblast, and liver fat-storing cells, which produce 90100% TGFß1 and little if any TGFß2. It is not clear at present why various tissues produce different LTGFß complexes. However, in bone, the LTGFß complex containing the nontruncated LTBP appears to be important in storing and releasing LTGFß from bone matrix (24).
High concentrations of plasmin have been shown to activate small LTGFß by proteolytically cleaving the precursor at multiple sites (25). However, low concentrations of plasmin can cleave pro-TGFß1 at the dibasic cleavage site without activating the complex. Earlier it was reported by the same group that plasmin only appears to activate the pool of LTGFß that is activated by mild pH (4.5) and not that activated by strong acidic pH (26). We have shown that high concentrations of plasmin (0.10.5 U/ml) are necessary to activate small LTGFß, whereas much smaller concentrations of plasmin (0.05 U/ml) will release large LTGFß from the bone matrix by cleavage of the LTBP (27). We have also shown that release of LTGFß by osteoblasts stimulated with PTH is completely blocked by aprotinin, whereas aprotinin has no effect on the release of LTGFß by isolated avian osteoclasts (27).
Retinoids increased activation of LTGFß in endothelial cell/smooth muscle cell cocultures by increasing membrane-associated plasminogen activator/plasmin levels (28, 29). In UMR-106-01 cells and neonatal mouse calvarial cells, PTH increases the activity of tissue-type and urokinase-type plasminogen activators, which are responsible for the activation of LTGFß (30). Keratinocytes when treated with retinoic acid secrete active TGFß2 (31). Therefore, retinoids and the plasminogen activator system appear to play an important role in the activation of LTGFß in a number of cell systems.
In the present study, the 100-kDa latent complex was mainly tested because bone cells secrete approximately 50% of their LTGFß complexes in this form. We sought to determine which forms of LTGFß could be activated by osteoclasts, whether the truncated LTBP would influence activation, and whether osteoclasts could activate nonacid-dissociable recombinant material. Although osteoclasts activate LTGFß (13, 14), how this process is regulated is not clear. We have shown previously that when isolated osteoclasts are treated with vitamin A or bone particles, they release active TGFß from the LTGFß complexes produced by bone organ cultures (13). The present studies were conducted to determine whether activation of LTGFß by vitamin A-treated cells is mediated through the plasmin/plasminogen activator system. To accomplish this, osteoclasts were prepared using two different techniques, one yielding homogeneous populations of osteoclast precursors, as described by Alvarez and co-workers (32), and a second, less homogeneous population of mature osteoclasts, as described by Zambonin-Zallone and co-workers (33). Here we show that these two populations of osteoclasts activate LTGFß differently and respond differently to retinol, and that the activation of LTGFß by these cells does not appear to be mediated via the plasmin/plasminogen activator system.
| Materials and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
MEM, FBS, penicillin-streptomycin solution, and
tissue culture reagents were obtained from Life Technologies (Grand
Island, NY). Vitamin A (retinol), aprotinin,
-amino-n-caproic acid (EACA), and the diagnostic kit for
tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase were purchased from Sigma Chemical
Co. (St. Louis, MO). Neutralizing antibodies for TGFß1 and TGFß2
were purchased from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN).
Isolation of avian osteoclasts: Zambonin-Zallone technique
Avian osteoclasts were isolated from medullary bone of
hypocalcemic egg laying white leghorn hens Gallus domesticus
(Kingswheel, OH) as previously described (33). The cells were plated at
2.5 x 106 cells/well in 48-well plates. On day 2
after isolation, the cells were washed and incubated with bone
particles (55 µm size) or vitamin A (retinol; 1 µM) and
2% FCS for 24 h, after which the cells were again washed before
the addition of LTGFß in 1% BSA. After 48 h (at which time the
cell number was approximately 1.7 x 104 cells/well),
the osteoclast-conditioned medium was removed and assessed for TGFß
activity in the alkaline phosphatase microassay as described below. To
assess the effects of protease inhibitors on TGFß activation,
aprotinin (50 µg/ml) and/or EACA (50 µg/ml) were added with the
LTGFß.
Isolation of avian osteoclast precursors
Isolation of precursor cells was performed by the procedure
described by Alvarez et al. (32). Tibiae and femora were
dissected from egg-laying white leghorn hens Gallus
domesticus (Kingswheel, OH) maintained on a low calcium diet
(Purina Test Diets, Richmond, IN) for 2128 days. The cells were
isolated and plated as described previously (32). At 72 h, at
which time the mononuclear cells have begun to fuse (cell number is
2.1 x 104 cells/well), retinol (1
µM) was added for 24 h, after which time the medium
was removed, and fresh
MEM-1% BSA with or without rLTGFß1 or
-ß2 was added. After 24-h incubation, the medium was tested for
TGFß activation in the ROS 17/2.8 microassay.
Alkaline phosphatase microassay for quantitating TGFß
bioactivity
TGFß activity was assessed by its capacity to increase
alkaline phosphatase activity in ROS 17/2.8 cells described previously
(13, 16, 22). This technique uses the quantitation of alkaline
phosphatase technique described by Majeska and Rodan (34), but modified
to be performed in 96-well microtiter plates. A TGFß standard curve
(5.00.019 ng/ml) was included in each assay. TGFß activation after
incubation of LTGFß with osteoclasts was converted to TGFß
equivalents in nanograms per ml. Specificity for TGFß was confirmed
by neutralization of activity with antibodies to TGFß1 and TGFß2
(R&D Systems).
Acid-activation of LTGFß to be tested for total TGFß
activity
One hundred microliters of sample were used in the alkaline
phosphatase microassay (22). To acid-activate a 100-µl sample of
LTGFß, 6 µl 1 M HCl were added, followed by 20 µl 10
mg/ml BSA and 10 µl 0.5 M NaOH for neutralization,
followed by sterile filtration using Centrex (Schleicher and Schuell,
Keene, NH) or Spin-X (Costar, Cambridge, MA) filters.
Purification of platelet LTGFß
Platelet material was purified using outdated platelets as
described previously (22). The platelets were lysed and centrifuged,
and the supernatant was dialyzed and applied to gel filtration,
followed by application of the high mol wt fraction to fast pressure
liquid chromatography using a preparative Mono Q anion exchange column
(Pharmacia, Piscataway, NJ). The LTGFß from platelets elutes at 0.3
M NaCl, which results in a major band of approximately 235
kDa (22). This material was used for the osteoclast activation
experiments.
Source of rLTGFß1 and rLTGFß2
Except for the experiments comparing acid-dissociable to
nonacid-dissociable rLTGFß1, all experiments were performed using
(NH4)2SO4-precipitated protein
derived from conditioned medium from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells
transfected with either the gene coding for simian TGFß1 (35) or
TGFß2 (36).
Preparation of acid-dissociable and nonacid-dissociable
rLTGFß1
Simian rTGFß1 is expressed in high levels by transfected CHO
cells (35). The simian TGFß1 precursor is secreted by transfected CHO
cells in two forms, an acid-dissociable complex that can yield
biologically active TGFß, and a nonacid-dissociable precursor
complex. The acid-dissociable form of LTGFß precursor has been
cleaved inside the cell, before secretion, at position 279, whereas the
nonacid-dissociable latent precursor has not been proteolytically
cleaved (see Fig. 4
). The rTGFß1 precursor is glycosylated and
phosphorylated at three sites (37, 38), and these sites can mediate
binding to the insulin-like growth factor II/mannose 6-phosphate
receptor (39).
|
-methylmannoside elution, as described
previously by Gentry et al. (35). This is termed
acid-dissociable material. The rTGFß precursor was treated with acid,
and mature TGFß was separated from the nonacid-dissociable precursor
using a TSK-sizing column on HPLC. The nonacid-dissociable material was
pooled, lyophilized, resuspended to 1 µg/ml, and applied to isolated
osteoclasts.
Western blots of acid-treated and nonacid-treated rTGFß1
precursor
Acid-treated and nonacid-treated material was applied to 15%
SDS-PAGE and electrophoresed under nonreducing conditions. The gel was
transblotted onto nitrocellulose overnight using a Tris-glycine
transblotting buffer as described previously (22). The nitrocellulose
membrane was removed, blocked with 5% BSA, washed, and blotted with
antibody specific for mature TGFß1 or the precursor (LAP) region. The
block for the anti-TGFß1 antibody was TGFß1, and that for the
antiprecursor antibody was peptide 244267. The secondary antibody was
alkaline phosphatase conjugated, and the blots were developed using
Bio-Rad developer (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Richmond, CA) containing
5-bromo-chloro-3-indoyl phosphate and nitroblue tetrazolium. The
primary antibodies and their specific peptide blocks were generously
supplied by Dr. Lalage Wakefield (NIH).
Incubation of osteoclast precursor-conditioned medium with
proteinase inhibitors
To determine whether osteoclast precursor-conditioned medium
would activate LTGFß, 100 µl conditioned medium were added to 100
µl LTGFß for 24 h at room temperature or 37 C before assaying
for active TGFß. The conditioned medium was collected from precursor
cells isolated using the Alvarez technique after 72 h of culture
and pretreatment with retinol for 24 h. To determine whether this
activation could be inhibited by serine protease inhibitors, EACA or
aprotinin was added at a final concentration of 50 µg/ml to the
conditioned medium and thoroughly mixed before the addition of
LTGFß.
Statistical analysis
Data were analyzed using Students t test using a
statistical package for the IBM PC (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). All data
are presented as the mean ± SE (n = 4 wells).
All experiments were repeated at least twice with similar results (Fig. 4
) or more than 12 times (Fig. 2
).
|
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
Activation of rLTGFß by isolated mature osteoclasts
As we had shown previously that isolated mature osteoclasts would
activate LTGFß isolated from bone organ cultures (13) and that bone
organ cultures produce a form of LTGFß essentially identical to
rTGFß1 (22), rLTGFß1 was applied to osteoclasts isolated using the
technique described by Zambonin-Zallone et al. (33) with and
without retinol pretreatment or with and without bone particle
treatment. Mature osteoclasts alone significantly activated rLTGFß1
and pretreatment with retinol or bone particles increased this
activation (Figs. 2
and 3
). rLTGFß was
added for 48 h before assay for active TGFß. The medium
containing rLTGFß was added at 1.5 µg protein/ml, which contains
2030 ng/ml biologically active TGFß after acid activation.
Therefore, 14% of the total available TGFß that was acid
activatable was released by these osteoclasts. The specificity of the
assay for TGFß was verified using a neutralizing antibody for TGFß1
(AB-101-NA, R&D Systems) as described previously (13). Ten micrograms
per ml of this antibody efficiently blocks 1 ng/ml TGFß1, as
determined by titration studies using the ROS 17/2.8 alkaline
phosphatase microassay. These cells also activate rLTGFß2 (data not
shown). Neutralizing antibody to TGFß (R&D Systems AB-112-NA) was
used that efficiently neutralizes 1 ng/ml TGFß2 at 1 µg/ml
antibody. To determine whether changes in the pH of
osteoclast-conditioned medium were responsible, the pH of the
conditioned medium was measured (see Table 1
). No
significant changes were observed.
|
|
Activation of platelet LTGFß by isolated mature osteoclasts
Platelets contain a 235-kDa latent complex composed of mature
TGFß1 (25-kDa dimer) noncovalently associated with the remainder of
the TGFß1 precursor proregion (75-kDa dimer), which, in turn, is
bound through a disulfide bond to a protein of 135 kDa that is a
truncated form of LTBP (17, 18). The presence of LTBP has also been
shown to be necessary for cell surface activation of the latent complex
(40). To determine whether LTBP would interfere with or enhance the
LTGFß activation process, platelet LTGFß was incubated with
isolated mature osteoclasts treated with and without retinol. The
platelet material contained approximately 40 ng/ml TGFß activity
after acid activation. The material was diluted 1:10 and incubated with
mature osteoclasts from the technique of Zambonin-Zallone et
al. (33) for 24 h at 10% CO2. As shown in Fig. 4
, little, if any, autoactivation was observed.
Significant activation was found with untreated cells compared to no
cells, but greater activation occurred with retinol-treated cells. A
maximal activation of approximately 8.7% of the total available TGFß
was observed.
Incubation of mature osteoclasts with purified nonacid-dissociable
rTGFß
The simian TGFß1 precursor secreted by transfected CHO cells is
secreted in two forms, an acid-dissociable complex that yields
biologically active TGFß and a nonacid-dissociable complex (
Figs. 57![]()
![]()
). The
acid-dissociable form of LTGFß precursor has been cleaved at position
279 before secretion from the cell, whereas the nonacid-dissociable
latent precursor has not been cleaved. Plasmin was found to convert
this noncleaved, nonacid-dissociable form to the cleaved,
acid-dissociable form by Lyons and co-workers (25, 26). We questioned
whether osteoclasts have the capacity to activate this noncleaved,
nonacid-dissociable form, as bone cells also appear to produce this
form in relative abundance (22).
|
|
|
|
|
After avian osteoclast precursors had been plated for 3 days, retinol
was added for 24 h, then removed, LTGFß was added, and the
conditioned medium was assayed at 24 and 48 h. These cells
significantly activated both rLTGFß1 and rLTGFß2 after 24 h
without the addition of retinol (see Fig. 9A
). This was
similar to data described by Oursler et al. (14).
Approximately 10 ng/ml total acid-activatable TGFß1 and 9 ng/ml total
acid-activatable TGFß2 were available, showing that approximately 8%
of the rLTGFß1 and 9% of the rLTGFß2 were activated by these
cells. The addition of retinol to these osteoclast precursors had no
effect on the activation process, in contrast to that in mature cells
isolated using the technique of Zambonin-Zallone et al.
(33). A greater percentage of the available LTGFß was activated by
precursor cells compared to mature osteoclasts.
|
Approximately 6.2 ng/ml rTGFß1 and 3.5 ng/ml rTGFß2 were available for activation. These experiments show that 13% of rLTGFß1 and 23% of rLTGFß2 were activated by incubation with precursor-conditioned medium.
Effects of protease inhibitors on activation of rLTGFß by
osteoclast precursor-conditioned medium
As conditioned medium from isolated osteoclast precursors would
activate LTGFß, and as it is known that plasmin activates LTGFß,
the broad spectrum serine protease inhibitors EACA and aprotinin were
added to conditioned medium incubated with rLTGFß1 and rLTGFß2. The
inhibitors were added at a final concentration of 50 µg/ml, which has
been reported previously to be effective at blocking LTGFß activation
(28, 29, 40) and was tested and found to have little effect on the
bioassay for TGFß. This experiment was repeated three times, with no
significant inhibition of activation observed (see Table 3
).
|
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The two techniques for isolation of osteoclasts used in this study gave quite different results with respect to activation of LTGFß. The major differences between the two techniques used to isolate the two osteoclast-like cell populations are the following. To obtain the mature osteoclasts, the marrow is scraped from the bone and allowed to adhere. The nonadherent cells are removed by washing before treatment. To obtain precursors, only the marrow is used, the bone is not scraped, the isolated cells are allowed to adhere then are washed, and the adherent cells are removed with EDTA and allowed to readhere. This additional removal and readherence step deletes several unknown cell types and multinucleated mature osteoclasts from the population. It is not clear at this time why these two populations would give different results, as similar numbers of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase multinucleated cells are present between 34 days of culture. Mature osteoclasts were regulated by retinol and bone particles, whereas osteoclast precursor cells were not regulated by retinol. This heterogeneous population of mature cells may be more representative of how LTGFß is activated by osteoclasts in vivo. Perhaps other cell types in these cultures are important in the regulation of mature osteoclasts, whereas lack of these cells leads to the formation of activated multinucleated cells.
Oursler (14) showed that avian osteoclast-like cells isolated using a monoclonal antibody that recognizes the 121F antigen produce and activate LTGFß. The 121F antigen is a protein on avian osteoclasts related to superoxide dismutase (41, 42). The conditioned medium from these cells also activated different sources of LTGFß, and it was speculated that these cells were already activated because they were attached to bone particles. No significant inhibition of LTGFß activation was observed with a series of protease inhibitors, including aprotinin. However, a combination of five different inhibitors significantly inhibited LTGFß activation. The freshly isolated 121F-positive cells used for LTGFß activation by Oursler (14) are similar to the fused mononuclear precursors used in this present study, in that conditioned medium from both cell populations activated LTGFß. However, no bone particles were present in the population used in this study compared to those used by Oursler (14), so it remains unclear how the fused mononuclear precursor cells are activated.
It is well known that an acidic zone exists under the resorbing osteoclast. The osteoclast secretes protons into this sealed zone or resorption lacunae, an isolated extracellular compartment that has been compared to an extracellular lysosome (43, 44). As LTGFß is stored in bone and LTGFß is activated by acidification, it has been hypothesized that osteoclasts may activate LTGFß by this mechanism. In the present study, as in previous ones (13), no significant changes were observed in the pH of the osteoclast-conditioned medium. This observation does not rule out the possibility that osteoclasts use this mechanism. Osteoclasts cultured on plastic surfaces still exhibit a reduced pH in the attachment zone, as determined by the use of microelectrodes (45). In theory, if the soluble LTGFß in solution could be transported to this zone, activation would occur. However, this theory remains to be proven.
It has been proposed that differences between latent complexes of the TGFß isoforms may necessitate different mechanisms of activation of the latent complexes (46). Seventy-one percent homology exists between the mature regions of TGFß1 and -ß2, but only 31% homology exists between their respective precursors, suggesting that the amino-terminals may provide distinct functions (47). The TGFß2 precursor contains 59 more amino acids, and multiple TGFß2 messenger RNAs are observed using Northern analysis. The precursor region of TGFß2 also contains three N-glycosylation sites, but lacks the cell adhesion recognition site (Arg-Gly-Asp) present in the TGFß1 precursor (48). In the present studies, we observed no differences in the activation of LTGFß1 or LTGFß2, suggesting that the precursor regions are not sufficiently different or that the precursor portions are not playing a significant role in the activation process.
Fibroblasts and many other cell types produce LTGFß, which contains a single chain 190-kDa protein, LTBP, that is disulfide linked to one of the precursor or LAP chains (19, 20). Platelet LTGFß contains a truncated form of this protein of 130 kDa that appears to be a proteolytically processed form (17, 18). LTBP has no covalent linkage with mature TGFß and does not confer latency to the complex (19, 22, 35). Bone contains several latent forms of TGFß (23), including a 100-kDa form that lacks the LTBP (22). In the present studies, the presence of the truncated form of LTBP had little effect on the activation process.
The plasminogen activator/plasmin system, which plays such an important role in activation of LTGFß in other cellular systems (30), does not appear to be the mediator for osteoclastic activation of LTGFß. Plasmin has been ascribed important roles in tissue remodeling because of its ability to activate latent collagenase, activate LTGFß1, liberate insulin-like growth factor I from its binding protein, and promote osteoblast and osteoclast mobility (for review, see 49 . As retinoids and plasmin appear to play a role in the activation of LTGFß in a number of cell systems (29, 30, 31) and as both tissue-type plasminogen activator and urokinase were localized by immunohistochemistry to osteoclasts (50), the assumption was made that plasmin was also involved in the activation of LTGFß by osteoclasts. However, inhibitors of plasmin shown to block activation of LTGFß in other cell systems had no significant effect in the present studies and suggest that osteoclasts use another mechanism to activate LTGFß.
Vitamin A influences bone development and bone remodeling. It has long been known that vitamin A deficiency leads to increased bone thickness, whereas vitamin A excess leads to bone resorption (51). Our present data suggest that vitamin A or retinol has an effect on osteoclasts that lead to activation of LTGFß. Regulation of LTGFß activation by retinoids has also been reported in cultured keratinocytes (31) and bovine endothelial cells (29). Excessive levels of vitamin A or retinol have catabolic effects on articular cartilage, opposing the anabolic effects of TGFß (52). However, retinoic acid enhances the effects of TGFß on DNA synthesis induced by growth factors in keratinocytes (53). Clearly, there is a complexity of interactions between retinoids and members of the TGFß family (54). The specific regulatory sequences involved in these interactions are unknown, given the multitude of actions of both retinoids and TGFß in development and osteogenesis. Retinol and TGFß are probably necessary for regulation of homeostasis in bone, which, in turn, may be mediated via the osteoclast.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| Footnotes |
|---|
Received July 25, 1996.
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
Y. Tu, D. J. Jerry, B. Pazik, and S. Smith Schneider Sensitivity to DNA Damage Is a Common Component of Hormone-Based Strategies for Protection of the Mammary Gland Mol. Cancer Res., August 1, 2005; 3(8): 435 - 442. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. A. Karsdal, P. Hjorth, K. Henriksen, T. Kirkegaard, K. L. Nielsen, H. Lou, J.-M. Delaisse, and N. T. Foged Transforming Growth Factor-{beta} Controls Human Osteoclastogenesis through the p38 MAPK and Regulation of RANK Expression J. Biol. Chem., November 7, 2003; 278(45): 44975 - 44987. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. L. Dallas, J. L. Rosser, G. R. Mundy, and L. F. Bonewald Proteolysis of Latent Transforming Growth Factor-beta (TGF-beta )-binding Protein-1 by Osteoclasts. A CELLULAR MECHANISM FOR RELEASE OF TGF-beta FROM BONE MATRIX J. Biol. Chem., June 7, 2002; 277(24): 21352 - 21360. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J. Pellaud, U. Schote, T. Arvinte, and J. Seelig Conformation and Self-association of Human Recombinant Transforming Growth Factor-beta 3 in Aqueous Solutions J. Biol. Chem., March 19, 1999; 274(12): 7699 - 7704. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Endocrinology | Endocrine Reviews | J. Clin. End. & Metab. |
| Molecular Endocrinology | Recent Prog. Horm. Res. | All Endocrine Journals |