Potential role for insulin-like growth factor II and vitronectin in the endothelial-mesenchymal transition process.

Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) is a process through which certain subsets of endothelial cells lose endothelial characteristics and transform into mesenchymal or smooth muscle-like cells. Emerging evidence suggests that this process plays an important role during vascular development and in many vascular pathologies. As in epithelial-mesenchymal transition, EndoMT seems to progress through a series of important steps whose interdependence and order are not clear, and that some of them are regulated by soluble growth factors.