Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) exhibit broad spectra of biological activities in various tissues, including bone, cartilage, blood vessels, heart, kidney, neurons, liver and lung. BMPs are members of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) family that bind to type II and type I serine-threonine kinase receptors, and transduce signals through Smad and non-Smad signalling pathways. Recent findings have revealed that BMP signalling is finely tuned by various mechanisms in both positive and negative fashions. Perturbations of BMP signalling pathways are linked to a wide variety of clinical disorders, including vascular diseases, skeletal diseases and cancer. Administration of recombinant BMP ligands and increasing endogenous expression of BMPs provide therapeutic effects on some diseases. The recent development of BMP receptor inhibitors may also prove useful for some clinical diseases induced by hyperactivation of the BMP signalling pathways.

The transforming growth factor-b (TGF-b) is the prototype of the TGF-b family of growth and differentiation factors, which is encoded by 33 genes in mammals and comprises homo-and heterodimers. This review introduces the reader to the TGF-b family with its complexity of names and biological activities. It also introduces TGF-b as the best-studied factor among the TGF-b family proteins, with its diversity of roles in the control of cell proliferation and differentiation, wound healing and immune system, and its key roles in pathology, for example, skeletal diseases, fibrosis, and cancer.

Dysregulated bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling in endothelial cells (ECs) and pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) are implicated in human genetic disorders. Here, we generated genome-wide maps of Smad1/5 binding sites in ECs and PASMCs. Smad1/5 preferentially bound to the region outside the promoter of known genes, and the binding was associated with target gene upregulation. Cell-selective Smad1/5 binding patterns appear to be determined mostly by cell-specific differences in baseline chromatin accessibility patterns. We identified, for the first time, a Smad1/5 binding motif in mammals, and termed GC-rich Smad binding element (GC-SBE). Several sequences in the identified GC-SBE motif had relatively weak affinity for Smad binding, and were enriched in cell type-specific Smad1/5 binding regions. We also found that both GC-SBE and the canonical SBE affect binding affinity for the Smad complex. Furthermore, we characterized EC-specific Smad1/5 target genes and found that several Notch signaling pathway-related genes were induced by BMP in ECs. Among them, a Notch ligand, JAG1 was regulated directly by Smad1/5, transactivating Notch signaling in the neighboring cells. These results provide insights into the molecular mechanism of BMP signaling and the pathogenesis of vascular lesions of certain genetic disorders, including hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia.