The experiments showed that TGF-β-induced Smad3 activation led to an increase in VISTA expression in various cell types including resting CD4-positive Jurkat T cells, primary human AML blasts derived from myeloid cell precursors, primary human embryonic cells, Wilms tumor cells, chronic AML cells and HaCaT keratinocytes. Here, SMAD3 is linked to acute myeloid leukemia.