These receptors are involved in a host of physiological processes including, growth, cell differentiation, homeostasis, osteogenesis, apoptosis and many other functions.
Several ligands that signal through the activin type 2 receptors regulate muscle growth.
[1] Myostatin, a TGF-beta superfamily member, is a negative regulator of muscle growth.
[2] These cells are responsive to both autocrine and paracrine activin B signaling, which controls their proliferation.
[3] In a lab, it has been shown that truncated mutations in the ACVR2 gene causes a significant reduction in activin mediated cell signaling.