Bone Morphogenetic Protein-3B (BMP-3B) , also known as Growth/Differentiation Factor 10 (GDF-10), is a cytokine belonging to the Transforming Growth Factor β (TGF-β) superfamily. BMP-3B contains the cystine knot motif shared by other TGF-β family members. BMP-3B was originally identified by PCR based on the BMP-3 sequence, and shares 83% identity with BMP-3. BMP-3B and BMP-2 act as mutual antagonists, as they compete for the availability of signaling protein Smad4. In vivo, BMP-3B is highly expressed in brain, lungs, and bone tissues. The functions of BMP-3B include acting as a dorsaling factor in head development, inhibition of adipogenesis in adipocytes, and induction of bone formation. BMP-3B is down-regulated in lung cancer patient samples, indicating its potential antitumor activity.
Recombinant human Bone Morphogenetic Protein-3B (rhBMP-3B) produced in E. coli is a disulfide-linked homodimer containing two non-glycosylated polypeptide chains of 111 amino acids each. rhBMP-3B has a molecular mass of 25.1 kDa analyzed by non-reducing SDS-PAGE and is obtained by proprietary chromatographic techniques at ExCell Bio.