Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) is a member of the BMP subgroup, of which BMP2-7 belongs to the TGF-β superfamily. It plays a dominant role in embryonic dorsoventral patterning, organogenesis, limb bud formation, and bone formation and regeneration. Mature human BMP-2 has 100% aa sequence identity with mouse and rat BMP-2. It has 85% sequence identity to human BMP-4 and less than 51% sequence identity to other BMPs. Normal bone formation is a carefully regulated long-term process involving the continuous expression of growth regulators by osteoblasts during proliferation and eventual differentiation. Because this ordered sequence of osteoblast gene expression suggests a cascade effect, BMP-2 is able to initiate and maintain this effect. BMP-2 also promotes maintenance and repair of colonic epithelium, inhibits neuronal dopamine synthesis and release, induces apoptosis in medulloblastoma cells, and is required for myocardial contractility.