Roles of TGF-beta in hepatic fibrosis

TGF-beta has multiple profibrogenic but also anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects. The balance of these actions is required for maintaining tissue homeostasis and an aberrant expression of TGF-beta is involved in a number of disease processes in the liver. In addition to its fibrogenic action leading to transdifferentiation of hepatic stellate cells into myofibroblasts, TGF-beta is also an important negative regulator of proliferation and an inducer of apoptosis. The major portion of TGF-beta is secreted as part of an inactive complex and the details of the activation process in liver have not yet been elucidated. The initially striking simplicity of the core TGF-beta/Smad signaling pathways is…