Regulatory Roles of Bone Morphogenetic Proteins and Glucocorticoids in Catecholamine Production by Rat Pheochromocytoma Cells

We here report a new physiological system that governs catecholamine synthesis involving bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and activin in the rat pheochromocytoma cell line, PC12. BMP type I receptors, including activin receptor-like kinase-2 (ALK-2) (also referred to as ActRIA) and ALK-3 (BMPRIA), both type II receptors, ActRII and BMPRII, as well as the ligands BMP-2, -4, and -7 and inhibin/activin subunits were expressed in PC12 cells. PC12...