AUTHOR=Zhou Qiao , Zhang Xin , Tong Xia , Tang Chuang , Chen Xin , Peng Ling , Xia Xiangen , Zhang Lanlan 

TITLE=Single Cell Meta-Analysis of Endothelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EndMT) in Glucose Metabolism of the Digestive Diseases

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-biosciences/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2022.866408

DOI=10.3389/fmolb.2022.866408

ISSN=2296-889X

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is poorly understood in digestive diseases, and the function of metabolism in EndMT is uncertain.</p><p><bold>Objective:</bold> The goal of this study is to elucidate the role of EndMT in digestive diseases and to describe its metabolic state.</p><p><bold>Method:</bold> The GEO database was used to extract single-cell data in order to discover EndMT subpopulations in digestive organs such as premalignant lesions and cancer of the stomach, intestine, and pancreas.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> By single-cell RNA sequencing in digestive diseases, we generated a single-cell atlas from tissues of patients spanning a cascade of premalignant lesions and cancer. We next established a single-cell network elucidating the cellular and molecular characteristics of endothelial cells (ECs) across many lesions and identified key genes linked with EndMT in premalignant lesions and cancer lesions. The EndMT activation of a wide variety of metabolic signaling pathways was discovered in ECs, and further study of premalignant lesions and cancer tissue indicated that glucose metabolism increased in premalignant lesions and reached a maximum in cancer tissue. Finally, it was shown that <italic>INSR</italic> and <italic>LDHA</italic> might be used as prognostic markers for developing premalignant lesions to cancer involving glucose metabolism in digestive diseases.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> For the first time, we discovered EndMT’s role in digestive diseases and described its metabolism, underscoring its crucial role in glucose metabolism in the disease. We found several targets <italic>via</italic> gene screening that are beneficial for predicting premalignant lesions that progress to cancer.</p>