epithelial mesenchymal transition; epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT)

Function: - program of development of biological cells characterized by a) loss of cell adhesion b) increased cell mobility - essential for developmental processes including a) mesoderm formation b) neural tube formation - characteristic feature of cells undergoing proliferation; cells expanding in-vitro assume mesenchymal phenotype Biochemistry: - repression of E-cadherin expression - induced by peptide growth factors, Src, Ras, Ets, integrin, Wnt/beta-catenin, Notch, Twist, FOXC2 - Snail & Slug are transcriptional repressors of E-cadherin & their expression induces EMT - induced by collagen type 1, mediated by integrin alpha1-beta2 - as cells assume a more mesenchymal phenotype, expression of osteopontin & collagen type 1 are increased Pathology: - cancer metastasis has phenotypic similarities to EMT, including: a) loss of cell-cell adhesion mediated by repression of E-cadherin b) an increase in cell mobility

References

Wikipedia: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithelial-mesenchymal_transition