TGF-β/smad Signal Transduction Pathway and Cardiac Reconstitution

TGF-β is a kind of cytokine with multifunction,which can not only regulate cell proliferation and differentiation,but also can stimulate the production of ECM as well as synthesis and secretion of active mediators,such as various cytokines,inflammatory mediators and so on.It plays an important role in a variety of cardiac diseases.Smad proteins are the downstream proteins of TGF-β superfamily,which can mediate intra-cellular signal transduction of TGF-β.This article reviews mechanism of TGF-β/Smad signal transduction pathway in heart remodeling and its progresses based on the introduction of this pathway and its cross talk with the other signal pathways including RAS,CK2,TAK1 MMPs and so on.