Compound developmental eye disorders following inactivation of TGFbeta signaling in neural-crest stem cells
BACKGROUND: Development of the eye depends partly on the periocular mesenchyme derived from the neural crest (NC), but the fate of NC cells in mammalian eye development and the signals coordinating the formation of ocular structures are poorly understood. RESULTS: Here we reveal distinct NC contributions to both anterior and posterior mesenchymal eye structures and show that TGFbeta signaling in t