Mechanisms of action of bone morphogenetic proteins in cancer

The bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) play fundamental roles in embryonic development and control differentiation of a diverse set of cell types. It is therefore of no surprise that the BMPs also contribute to the process of tumourigenesis and regulate cancer progression through various stages. We summarise here key roles of BMP ligands, receptors, their signalling mediators, mainly focusing on proteins of the Smad family, and extracellular...