Figure 3

TGFβ signaling is active in sebaceous gland in vivo and in vitro. Sebaceous glands were sectioned in horizontal plane (red line in the diagram). (a) OCT sections of human scalp tissue stained with TGFβ RII (red) show expression of the receptor throughout the sebaceous gland with the exception of the differentiated cells in the center. Boxed area is magnified and shown to (a’). (b) TGFβ pathway is active in vivo as denoted by the expression of nuclear phosphorylated Smad2 (red). α6: α6-integrin stains in green the basal layer of the sebaceous gland. Scale bars, 50 μm (a), 20 μm (a’, b, b’). Abbreviations: Epi, Epidermis; HF, Hair Follicle; SG, Sebaceous Gland. (c) The indicated sebocyte cultures were treated with 5ng/ml of TGFβ1 ligand for one hour and whole cell extracts were examined by immunoblot to determine the activation of the TGFβ pathway.