FIG. 7.

Activation of TGFβ/BMP signaling. Fetal and adult MSCs were treated with TGFβ3 and BMP2. The phosphorylation of BMP-specific SMAD1 and SMAD5 and TGFβ-specific SMAD3 was measured by western blotting (A) and quantified using densitometry as fold change normalized to GAPDH (B). TGFβ receptor II (TGFBR2) (C) and BMP receptor II (BMPR2) (D) expression was measured by qPCR. Each line is the mean±SEM (n=4). In (B) *P<0.05 by Kruskal–Wallis with a Dunn's post-hoc correction for multiple comparisons; in (C, D) *P<0.05 by Mann–Whitney U-test.