TGFβ Induced Myofibroblast Differentiation of Rabbit Keratocytes Requires Synergistic TGFβ, PDGF and Integrin Signaling

There is a growing consensus that corneal myofibroblasts are derived from adjacent stromal keratocytes which undergo an orderly phenotypic transition from quiescent keratocyte to activated fibroblast to myofibroblast. Both in vivo and in vitro studies have shown this transition to be dependent, in part, on transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ). In many fibroblastic cells autocrine production of platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) is known to mediate the growth up-regulation by TGFβ. In this study, blocking antibodies to PDGF significantly reduced by 80% (P