Noggin

Metabologens initiate, promote and maintain morphogenesis and adult tissue homeostasis. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) which belong to the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily, represent a major class of metabologens that regulate ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm derived tissue formation. In order to temporally and spatially control BMP initiated signaling cascades, a tight regulatory network is needed to maintain concinnity. There are a number of ways how BMP signaling can be inhibited or more likely be modified, among which the direct extracellular inhibition through cysteine-knot containing proteins from the DAN-, the twisted gastrulation-, chordin- and noggin-family is a classic. This review focuses on noggin and its impact on the vast array of BMP driven actions and thereby invites the ever-growing BMP research field to (re-) investigate noggin's function in detail. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.