Open figure viewer
The extracellular matrix (ECM) acts as a storage facility for tons of factors waiting to do business in the cell. Annes et al. (page 723) show that the ECM anchoring of one factor, the cytokine TGF-β, is essential for its activation. The anchoring may give cells something to pull against, with the pulling mediating the activation.
An artificial tether (anti-HA; triangles) activates just as well as LTBP.
Most TGF-β is secreted as a complex containing TGF-β, a TGF-β pro-domain, and a protein called the latent TGF-β binding protein (LTBP). By the time the complex is extracellular, the pro-domain has been cleaved from TGF-β but remains noncovalently bound to TGF-β and covalently linked (via disulfides) to LTBP. The pro-domain stops TGF-β from signaling, but the complex can be activated in the presence of cells expressing the integrin αVβ6.
The mechanism...
The Rockefeller University Press
2004
You do not currently have access to this content.
