Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune connective tissue disorder characterized by oxidative stress, impaired vascular function, and attenuated angiogenesis. The tight-skin (Tsk(-/+)) mouse is a model of SSc that displays many of the cellular features of the clinical disease. We tested the hypotheses that abnormal fibrillin-1 expression and chronic phospholipid oxidation occur in Tsk(-/+) mi...

BACKGROUND We previously reported high-throughput RNA sequencing analyses that identified heightened expression of the chromatin architectural factor High Mobility Group AT-hook 1 (HMGA1) in pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (PAECs) from patients who had idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in comparison with controls. Because HMGA1 promotes epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition i...

Cellular plasticity during cancer metastasis is a major clinical challenge. Two key cellular plasticity mechanisms -Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and Mesenchymal-to-Amoeboid Transition (MAT) - have been carefully investigated individually, yet a comprehensive understanding of their interconnections remains elusive. Previously, we have modeled the dynamics of the core regulatory cir...

Overexpression of zinc finger E-box binding homeobox transcription factor 1 (Zeb1) in cancer leads to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and increased metastasis. As opposed to overexpression, we show that mutation of Zeb1 in mice causes a mesenchymal-epithelial transition in gene expression characterized by ectopic expression of epithelial genes such as E-cadherin and loss of expressio...

Myofibroblastic hepatic stellate cells (MF-HSC) are derived from quiescent hepatic stellate cells (Q-HSC). Q-HSC express certain epithelial cell markers and have been reported to form junctional complexes similar to epithelial cells. We have shown that Hedgehog (Hh) signaling plays a key role in HSC growth. Because Hh ligands regulate epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), we determined wh...

Activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) depending on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) reflects the key event of liver fibrosis. Contrastively, mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) of HSCs facilitates the fibrosis resolution. Here we investigated the effect of Fuzheng Huayu (FZHY) recipe, a Chinese herbal decoction made of Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Semen Persicae, Cordycep...

29 The outcome of liver injury is determined by the success of repair. Liver repair 30 involves replacement of damaged liver tissue with healthy liver epithelial cells 31 (including both hepatocytes and cholangiocytes), and reconstruction of normal 32 liver structure and function. Current dogma posits that replication of surviving 33 mature hepatocytes and cholangiocytes drives the regeneration...

OBJECTIVE Endothelial cells (ECs) can undergo an endothelial-mesenchymal transition with tissue fibrosis. Wnt- and Msx2-regulated signals participate in arteriosclerotic fibrosis and calcification. We studied the impact of Wnt7, Msx2, and Dkk1, a Wnt7 antagonist, on endothelial-mesenchymal transition in primary aortic ECs. APPROACH AND RESULTS Transduction of aortic ECs with vectors expressin...

The outcome of liver injury is determined by the success of repair. Liver repair involves replacement of damaged liver tissue with healthy liver epithelial cells (including both hepatocytes and cholangiocytes) and reconstruction of normal liver structure and function. Current dogma posits that replication of surviving mature hepatocytes and cholangiocytes drives the regeneration of liver epithe...