Fibroblasts are key mediators of fibrosis in the kidney and other organs, but their origin
during fibrosis is still not completely clear. Activated fibroblasts likely arise from resident
quiescent fibroblasts via epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and from the bone marrow.
Here, we demonstrate that endothelial cells also contribute to the emergence of fibroblasts
during kidney fibrosis via the process of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT). We
examined the contribution of EndMT to renal fibrosis in three mouse models of chronic …