When endothelial cells go rogue

Abstract

© 2016 EMBO. Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is a poorly understood phenomenon that leads to endothelial cells acquiring a variety of different mesenchymal fates. This results in a number of pathological consequences of considerable clinical significance in diseases ranging from cavernous malformations in the brain to tissue fibrosis, atherosclerosis, and cancer. Importantly, while there appears to be a number of different triggers activating EndMT, the final common pathway driving the transition appears to be the same. Chen and Simons comment on the report by Dejana et al in this issue describing KLF4 as a crucial determinant for the development of cavernomas and provide a pocket-size overview of current knowledge on the endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition.