Regulation and Functional Analysis of Type X Collagen

骨形态发生蛋白(BMP)是转化生长因子-b(TGF-b)家族中的一员，在动物发育过程中发挥着不同的作用。尽管BMP最初被发现是因为它们的骨诱导能力，但令人惊讶的是，目前还没有体内证据表明在骨骼形成过程中BMP信号是普遍需要的。小鼠对编码BMP信号蛋白的基因的标准敲除并不是很有信息量，因为许多基因在骨骼形成之前的早期胚胎发育中死亡。我们已经进行了条件遗传学研究，并提供了证据表明，BMP I型受体对于骨骼形成是必不可少的，并且是冗余的，从而揭示了BMP信号的复杂性。与在肢体间充质和软骨细胞中表达cre重组酶的转基因小鼠相结合， 我们建议研究骨形成蛋白信号蛋白在骨骼发育中的需求和复杂性。

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) are members of the transforming growth factor-b (TGF-b) family of cytokines that play a variety of different roles during animal development. Although BMPs were first identified for their bone-inducing abilities, surprisingly there is currently no in vivo evidence for a general requirement for BMP signaling in skeleton formation. Standard mouse knockouts for genes encoding BMP signaling proteins have not been very informative because many die during early embryogenesis before skeleton formation. We have performed conditional genetic studies and provide evidence that BMP type I receptors are essential and act redundantly for skeleton formation, thus revealing BMP signaling complexity. In combination with transgenic mice that express cre recombinase in limb mesenchyme and chondrocytes, we propose to examine the requirement and complexity of BMP signaling proteins in skeletal development.