Department of Biochemistry, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, Chuo, Yamanashi, Japan.
PLoS One. 2013 May 13;8(5):e62659. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062659. Print 2013.
Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) regulate various biological processes, mostly mediated by cells of mesenchymal origin. However, the roles of BMPs in epithelial cells are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that, in polarized epithelial cells, BMP signals are transmitted from BMP receptor complexes exclusively localized at the basolateral surface of the cell membrane. In addition, basolateral stimulation with BMP increased expression of components of tight junctions and enhanced the transepithelial resistance (TER), counteracting reduction of TER by treatment with TGF-β or an anti-tumor drug. We conclude that BMPs maintain epithelial polarity via intracellular signaling from basolaterally localized BMP receptors.
骨形态发生蛋白（BMPs）调节各种生物过程，主要通过间充质来源的细胞介导。然而，BMPs 在上皮细胞中的作用还知之甚少。在这里，我们证明在极化的上皮细胞中，BMP 信号是由仅位于细胞膜基底外侧表面的 BMP 受体复合物传递的。此外，BMP 对基底外侧的刺激增加了紧密连接组件的表达，并增强了跨上皮电阻（TER），对抗 TGF-β或抗肿瘤药物处理导致的 TER 降低。我们的结论是，BMP 通过基底外侧定位的 BMP 受体的细胞内信号来维持上皮极性。
