SMAD3 and Myocardial fibrosis: To prove whether BMP-2 inhibition promoted TGF-β1-mediated fibrotic signalling pathway, we examined TGF-β1-induced activation of PKC-δ and Smad3, two important signal molecules that induced myocardial fibrosis [16, 17], after knocking down BMP-2 in cardiomyocytes.