Figure 8
From: Cigarette smoke exacerbates mouse allergic asthma through Smad proteins expressed in mast cells
A schematic diagram of signaling pathway in mast cells activated by antigen/antibody reaction and smoke exposure in vivo and in vitro. The data suggest that smoke exposure induces TGF-β release from a variety of cells including mast cells. The released TGF-β activates mast cells through expression of Smad isoforms such as TβRI/pSmad3C and pSamd3L and subsequent activation of these proteins via MAP kinases. In this way, it exacerbates allergic asthma symptoms. Question mark (?) indicates TGF-β predicted to be produced by various cell types or indicates predicted signaling cascade. The dotted arrow indicates a response that was not determined in this study.