EMT is a fundamental developmental program that is hijacked in cancer. During EMT, cells lose the apical-basal polarity and cell-cell adhesion molecules, such as E-cadherin, that hold epithelial sheets together, and they instead express mesenchymal markers including N-cadherin, vimentin, and transcriptional repressors of the Snail, Slug, Twist, and Zeb families. In lung biology, this program is deeply implicated in both pathological fibrosis and carcinoma progression, since the same signaling cascades that mobilize epithelial plasticity during wound repair can be co-opted by tumor cells to detach, migrate, invade surrounding tissue, and ultimately seed metastases. Transforming growth factor beta, or TGF-β, is the most potent and widely studied inducer of EMT, activating downstream SMAD-dependent transcription as well as non-canonical pathways involving MAPK, PI3K-AKT, and Rho GTPases.

What has become increasingly clear over the past decade is that EMT is not merely a change in gene expression; it is a wholesale reorganization of cellular metabolism. Epithelial cells, which rely heavily on mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to generate ATP, must rewire their energetic machinery to support the demanding biosynthetic needs of a migrating, proliferating cell. Aerobic glycolysis provides rapid ATP and, critically, diverts glycolytic intermediates into branching anabolic pathways, including the pentose phosphate pathway for nucleotide synthesis and serine biosynthesis routes for lipid and amino acid generation. This metabolic flexibility is thought to be a prerequisite for successful EMT rather than simply a byproduct of it, and teasing apart cause from consequence is precisely the challenge that the new work addresses.

The research team focused on lung epithelial cells because the lung represents a clinical arena in which EMT-linked processes carry enormous weight. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis involves fibroblast activation and epithelial cell state transitions driven in part by TGF-β, while lung cancers, including non-small cell lung carcinoma, frequently display hybrid epithelial-mesenchymal phenotypes associated with drug resistance and metastatic spread. Understanding whether glycolytic reprogramming is a driver or a passenger in the TGF-β-induced transition of lung epithelial cells therefore has implications that extend from basic cell biology to therapeutic strategy, because metabolic enzymes are, in principle, druggable targets in a way that master transcription factors often are not.

Technically, the investigation combined TGF-β stimulation of lung epithelial cell models with measurements of glycolytic flux, lactate production, and the expression of key glycolytic enzymes such as hexokinase 2, phosphofructokinase, and lactate dehydrogenase A. These functional readouts were integrated with assessments of EMT marker expression, including the loss of E-cadherin and the gain of vimentin and N-cadherin, to establish a temporal and causal relationship between metabolic shift and phenotypic conversion. Such paired metabolic and molecular phenotyping is essential because TGF-β is known to alter numerous cellular processes simultaneously, and only carefully timed interventions can reveal which changes are required for EMT to proceed and which are secondary consequences of it.

The broader literature supports the plausibility of a causal link. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha, a master regulator of glycolytic gene expression, is stabilized not only by low oxygen but also by TGF-β signaling through mechanisms involving reactive oxygen species and mTOR pathway activation. At the same time, TGF-β suppresses the expression of PPAR gamma coactivator 1 alpha, a key driver of mitochondrial biogenesis, thereby tilting the balance away from oxidative metabolism. Glycolytic enzymes themselves have been reported to moonlight as transcriptional co-regulators; for example, certain glycolysis-associated factors can influence the activity of EMT transcription factors, creating feedback loops in which metabolism and gene expression reinforce one another. If such loops operate in lung epithelial cells, blocking glycolysis could potentially arrest or reverse the EMT program rather than merely slowing cellular energy production.

Therapeutically, the implications are considerable. Drugs that target glycolysis, ranging from hexokinase inhibitors to lactate dehydrogenase inhibitors, have been explored in preclinical cancer models for years, although clinical translation has been complicated by the dependence of normal tissues, including the brain and red blood cells, on glucose metabolism. The value of the new work lies in narrowing the therapeutic window: if glycolytic dependency is specifically induced during the EMT transition in lung epithelial cells, then transient metabolic intervention could be timed to coincide with windows of tumor plasticity, such as during the emergence of resistance to targeted therapies or immune checkpoint inhibitors, when EMT-associated states are thought to be most prominent.

The study also speaks to a conceptual shift in how the field understands cell state transitions. EMT is now recognized not as a binary switch but as a spectrum of hybrid states, with cells occupying partial epithelial-mesenchymal phenotypes that may be particularly aggressive and drug tolerant. Metabolic profiling adds an additional axis to this landscape: hybrid cells may display intermediate glycolytic dependency, fully mesenchymal cells may be the most glycolytic, and reversibility of the process may depend on whether the metabolic reprogramming has been consolidated through epigenetic modification. Stable chromatin changes at EMT gene loci could lock in a mesenchymal state even after the original TGF-β signal dissipates, suggesting that metabolic interventions would need to occur early in the transition to be effective.

For patients with lung disease, the distance between mechanistic cell biology and clinical benefit remains substantial, and the authors’ findings should be understood as foundational rather than immediately actionable. Nevertheless, the convergence of TGF-β biology, metabolic reprogramming, and epithelial plasticity in lung cells offers a coherent framework for developing biomarkers that identify patients whose tumors or fibrotic lesions are undergoing active EMT, and for designing combination regimens in which metabolic inhibitors sensitize cells to existing TGF-β pathway antagonists, kinase inhibitors, or antifibrotic agents. As the field continues to map the metabolic architecture of cell state transitions, studies like this one bring the goal of intervening in cancer progression and fibrosis at the level of cellular identity, rather than merely cellular proliferation, steadily closer to realization.

Subject of Research: The role of aerobic glycolysis in TGF-β-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in lung epithelial cells

Article Title: The role of aerobic glycolysis in TGF-β-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in lung epithelial cells

Article References: Huang, S.-W., Chen, H.-C., Peng, S.-Y., Chuang, C.-H., Chen, B.-C., Cheng, W.-H., Cools, J. M. T., Neoh, M.-M., Hsiao, S.-H., & Hsu, M.-J. (2026). The role of aerobic glycolysis in TGF-β-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in lung epithelial cells. Cell Death Discovery. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-026-03322-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1038/s41420-026-03322-5

Keywords: aerobic glycolysis, Warburg effect, TGF-beta, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, lung epithelial cells, EMT, cancer metastasis, metabolic reprogramming, lactate dehydrogenase, pulmonary fibrosis, cell death discovery, glycolytic flux