Figure 1 Mechanisms for increased differentiation of neural cells by inhibition of the SMAD pathway.
(A) Noggin can bind bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2,4,7 with high affinity to prevent their ligation with BMP-2, BMP-4, and BMP-7 receptors. (B) Dorsomorphin can selectively inhibit the BMP type I receptors (ALK2, ALK3, ALK6) and further blocks BMP-mediated SMAD- 1,5,8 phosphorylation. (C) SB-431542 can selectively inhibit transforming growth factor-beta (TGF β ) type I receptor (ALK-5), activin type I receptor (ALK-4) and nodal type I receptor (ALK-7) and thus blocks phosphorylation of SMAD-2 and SMAD-3 (Inman et al., 2002; Pera et al., 2004; Chiba et al., 2008; Yu et al., 2008; Chambers et al., 2009; Wada et al., 2009; Morizane et al., 2011).