Abstract
Vascular endothelial cells can demonstrate considerable plasticity to generate other cell types during embryonic development and disease progression. This process occurs through a cell differentiation mechanism known as endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT). The generation of mesenchymal cells from endothelium is a crucial step in endothelial cell differentiation to several lineages including fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, mural cells, osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. Such differentiation patterns have been observed in systems of cardiac development, fibrosis, diabetic nephropathy, heterotopic ossification and cancer. Here we describe the EndMT program and discuss the current evidence of EndMT-mediated acquisition of stem cell characteristics and multipotent differentiation capabilities.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 379-384 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Seminars in cancer biology |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 5-6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- EMT
- EndMT
- Endothelial-mesenchymal transition
- Stem cells
- TGF-beta
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cancer Research