Figure 3.
Type 2 EMT in wound healing and tissue regeneration. Normal epithelia that arose from type 1 EMT during development experience a noxious event or injury that triggers endothelial and epithelial cells to produce factors that mediate coagulation and clot formation. These events, coupled with enhanced MMP production facilitate the recruitment of immune cells and platelets to denuded wounds, leading to the production of provisional ECM and activation of angiogenesis. TGF-β enhances the healing process by inducing EMT in myofibroblasts, which drives their differentiation, activation, and migration into denuded wounds to facilitate wound restitution, closure, and re-epithelialization. The role of TGF-β in regulating type 2 EMT during mammary gland fibrosis is discussed in the text.