Localization of TGF-beta receptors [type II] in the adult rat muscles

ABSTRACT

To date, signal transduction of transforming growth factor-beta [TGF-beta] members is well known to occur through three main identified types of protein receptors. Type II receptors [T beta R-II] were found to be prime movers of the signaling process of TGF-beta candidates. Because TGF-beta 2 localizes a neuromuscular junctions [nmjs] of the adult Wistar rats, it would be expectable accumulation of TGF-beta receptors at the same location, i.e. nmjs. Two groups of six Wistar rats were subject to both confocal immunohistochemistry and immunoelectronmicroscopy studies. The main objective of this study was to localize T beta R-II particularly at the nmjs. The results do not prove a clear-cut evidence of T beta R-II accumulation at the nmjs. The receptors would rather scatter near and around the intracellular organelles such as mitochondria in a variable manner. Several assumptions were put forward to explain such variability