TGFβ

[Journal of Cachexia Sarcopenia and Muscle] The authors demonstrated the key role of fibroadipogenic progenitors and their cross-talk with muscle cells through a paracrine signaling pathway in fibrosis of human skeletal muscle and identified endothelin as a new druggable target to counteract human muscle fibrosis.

[Experimental & Molecular Medicine] Scientists showed that bone marrow-derived MSCs contributed to fibrosis in myeloproliferative neoplasms by differentiating into αSMA-positive myofibroblasts.

[Nature Communications] By functional evaluation and genome-wide profiling at both transcriptional and epigenetic levels, scientists revealed a role of airway basal cells in tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica progression by acting as a repository of inflammatory and TGFβ-BMP signals, which contributed to both epithelial metaplasia and mesenchymal osteo-chondrogenesis via extracellular signaling and matrix remodeling.

[Cell] Investigators found that in Tgfbr2 knockout tumors, the tumor microenvironment (TME) was converted to a fibro-mucinous state, and T cells excluded, concomitant with upregulated TGFβ and TGFβ-mediated fibroblast activation, indicating that TGFβ-receptor loss on cancer cells increased TGFβ bioavailability and its immunosuppressive effects on the TME.

[Molecular Cancer Research] The authors showed that a selective Raf kinase inhibitor protein (RKIP) inducer inhibited tumor growth and promoted schwannoma cell differentiation into mature Schwann cells under NF2-deficient conditions.

[Cell Death & Disease] Researchers analyzed murine and human tumors and identified a role for Tgfβr2 in governing the molecular aspects of epithelial to mesenchymal transition that occured with Brca1 loss.