Abstract
Introduction: Endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) is a dynamic endothelial cell-state transition increasingly implicated in fibrosis, vascular dysfunction, inflammation and cancer. Despite expansion of EndoMT-focused transcriptomic research, EndoMT representation remains limited to broader epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) frameworks in standard gene set repositories.
Methods: To address the absence of a general-purpose EndoMT gene set for transcriptomic enrichment analysis, we developed an open EndoMT gene set resource and accompanying R package. A literature-informed EndoMT gene set was curated and directionally assigned to EndoMT UP and EndoMT DOWN signatures according to reported or hypothesised expression during partial EndoMT, defined here as an active transitional state rather than a complete mesenchymal endpoint, to improve capture of EndoMT-associated transcriptional changes across different stages of the process. Genes were annotated by marker subtype and implemented as Gene Matrix Transposed files distributed through the R package, together with exported R objects and gene-level metadata. Benchmarking was performed using bulk RNA-seq data sets GSE118446, comprising seven-day IL-1lβ/TGF-β2-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and human pulmonary arterial endothelial cells, and GSE342578, comprising three-day TGF-β1/2/3-treated HUVECs; single-cell RNA-seq data set GSE237895, comprising seven-day TGF-β1-treated and SNAI1-overexpressing HUVECs; and endothelial cell and cancer-associated fibroblast populations from human metastatic melanoma single-cell RNA-seq data set GSE72056.
Results: In GSE118446, EndoMT UP was positively enriched and EndoMT DOWN negatively enriched in chronically IL-1β/TGF-β2-treated endothelial cells, concordant with experimentally validated EndoMT induction, while partial EndoMT-associated enrichment was detected in single ligand-treatment. In contrast, EndoMT UP was negatively enriched following acute TGF-β1/2/3 treatment, suggesting temporal differences between acute TGF-β stimulation and chronic EndoMT induction. In GSE237895 mesenchymal-like endothelial cells, EndoMT UP was positively enriched and EndoMT DOWN negatively enriched in both TGF-β1-treated and SNAI1-overexpressing models. EndoMT gene sets also discriminated endothelial and mesenchymal/stromal transcriptional states in GSE72056 metastatic melanoma. Marker subtype and Gene Ontology Biological Process analyses provided additional exploratory resolution of EndoMT-associated components beyond MSigDB Hallmark EMT.
Discussion: The EndoMT R package provides a dedicated, accessible and interoperable resource for EndoMT-focused transcriptomic enrichment analysis. Benchmarking demonstrates utility for detecting established, partial and divergent EndoMT-associated states, supporting broad applicability across EndoMT biology research.