The role of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and type beta transforming growth factor (TGF-beta 1-beta 2-beta 3) during rat craniofacial development.

Growth factors seem to be part of a complex cellular signalling language, in which individual growth factors are the equivalents of the letters that compose words. According to this analogy, informational content lies, not in an individual growth factor, but in the entire set of growth factors and others signals to which a cell is exposed. The ways in which growth factors exert their combinatorial effects are becoming clearer as the molecular mechanisms of growth factors actions are being investigated. A number of related extracellular signalling molecules that play widespread roles in regulating development in both invertebrates and vertebrates constitute the Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) and type beta Transforming Growth Factor (TGF beta). The latest research literature about the role and fate of these Growth factors and their influence in the craniofacial bone growth ad development is reviewed.