Two new studies show that haploinsufficiency for TGFB2 causes a familial syndrome of thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections with other clinical features that overlap the Marfan, Loeys-Dietz spectrum of syndromes. Their finding of loss-of-function mutations in yet another transforming growth factor (TGF)-β pathway gene reinforces the seeming paradox of observed increases in the downstream TGF-β signaling pathway.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
SPP1/osteopontin: a driver of fibrosis and inflammation in degenerative ascending aortic aneurysm?
Journal of Molecular Medicine Open Access 12 September 2023
-
Activation of TGF-β signaling in an aortic aneurysm in a patient with Loeys-Dietz syndrome caused by a novel loss-of-function variant of TGFBR1
Human Genome Variation Open Access 18 January 2019
-
Smooth muscle cell-specific Tgfbr1 deficiency promotes aortic aneurysm formation by stimulating multiple signaling events
Scientific Reports Open Access 14 October 2016
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
206,07 € per year
only 17,17 € per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Katie Vicari
References
Boileau, C. et al. Nat. Genet. 44, 916–921 (2012).
Lindsay, M.E. et al. Nat. Genet. 44, 922–927 (2012).
Goudie, D.R. et al. Nat. Genet. 43, 365–369 (2011).
Heldin, C.H. & Moustakas, A. Cell Tissue Res. 347, 21–36 (2012).
Mu, Y. et al. Cell Tissue Res. 347, 11–20 (2012).
Carta, L. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 284, 5630–5636 (2009).
Larrivée, B. et al. Dev. Cell 22, 489–500 (2012).
de Martin, R. et al. EMBO J. 6, 3673–3677 (1987).
Zhang, H., Yang, P., Zhou, H. Meng, Q. & Huang, X. Immunology 124, 304–314 (2008).
Shimizu, C. et al. Circ. Cardiovasc. Genet. 4, 16–25 (2011).
He, R. et al. J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 136, 922–929 (2008).
Wang, W. et al. Circ. Res. 98, 1032–1039 (2006).
Rodíiguez-Vita, J. et al. Circulation 111, 2509–2517 (2005).
Akhurst, R.J. & Hata, A. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. (in the press).
Habashi, J.P. et al. Science 312, 117–121 (2006).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Akhurst, R. The paradoxical TGF-β vasculopathies. Nat Genet 44, 838–839 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2366
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2366
This article is cited by
-
Truncating variants in the penultimate exon of TGFBR1 escaping nonsense-mediated mRNA decay cause Loeys-Dietz syndrome
European Journal of Human Genetics (2023)
-
SPP1/osteopontin: a driver of fibrosis and inflammation in degenerative ascending aortic aneurysm?
Journal of Molecular Medicine (2023)
-
Activation of TGF-β signaling in an aortic aneurysm in a patient with Loeys-Dietz syndrome caused by a novel loss-of-function variant of TGFBR1
Human Genome Variation (2019)
-
Distinct variants affecting differential splicing of TGFBR1 exon 5 cause either Loeys–Dietz syndrome or multiple self-healing squamous epithelioma
European Journal of Human Genetics (2018)
-
A missense TGFB2 variant p.(Arg320Cys) causes a paradoxical and striking increase in aortic TGFB1/2 expression
European Journal of Human Genetics (2017)