Biology of TGF-β in knockout and transgenic mouse models. This paper reviews the basic biology and biochemistry of the TGF-β isoforms including their unique serine-threonine receptors and signaling intermediates. Dysregulation of TGF-β expression and/or receptor/signaling function have been implicated in a wide variety of pathologies. We will discuss mechanisms underlying some of these disease processes as gained from study of transgenic mice in which expression of TGF-β1 has either been lost by targeted deletion of its gene, is overexpressed in a tissue/specific manner, or blocked by its latency associated peptide.
