“…57, 58 Furthermore, experimental studies link ENG , ACVRL1 and SMAD4 deficiency to reductions in endothelial integrity, 21, 23, 24 relevant to the core clinical HHT phenotype of hemorrhage. 5–9 Amongst the top 50 HHT-differentially aligned genes, many encode extracellular proteins that regulate TGF-β/BMP signalling including periostin 56 ( POSTN) , fibulin-6/hemicentin 1 59, 60 ( HMCN1) , lysyl oxidase-like 2 61 ( LOXL2 ), SPARC-related modular calcium binding protein 2 62 ( SMOC2) , laminin receptor 1 ( RSPA ), 63 and fibrillin 1 ( FBN1 , Figure 4F, Supplementary Figure 7) 58 Likely relevance was further enhanced because BMP/TGF-β ligand release from extracellular pools is by matrix metallopeptidases, 64, 65 a further GO term enriched in the HHT BOEC datasets (through 8 genes, most significantly ADAMTS18 , and MMP24 , Figure 4F, Supplementary Figure 7). Our initial expectation was that their modulation may be further cellular adaptive responses that enable more ACVRL1 +/- , ENG +/- and SMAD4 +/- BOECs to survive, analogous to lower ALK5 and ALK1 receptor expression/signalling.…”