Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2019 Aug 16;10:904. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2019.00904

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Copyright © 2019 Srivastava, Hedayat, Kanasaki and Goodwin

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

PMC Copyright notice

The origins of kidney myofibroblasts. Myofibroblasts are originated from resident fibroblasts, bone marrow-derived monocytes, bone marrow-derived M2 phenotype macrophages via macrophage-to-mesenchymal transition (MMT) process, from epithelial cell via epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program, and from endothelial cells via endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndMT) program. During the process of EMT, epithelial cells loose the epithelial markers (E-cadherin and occludins) and gain the mesenchymal markers (FSP-1, α-SMA, N-cadherin, and fibronectin). In the EndMT process, endothelial cells lose the endothelial markers (CD31 and VE cadherin) and gain the mesenchymal markers. However, during the process of MMT, the myo-fibroblasts co-express M2 phenotype macrophage markers (CD206) with mesenchymal markers. TGFβ, BMP, and Wnt signaling play a crucial role in the activation of mesenchymal transition processes. The myofibroblasts are polar, pointed, and elongated in shape and ability to migrate and invade the neighbor cells.