Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition Best Online Journals
The
Epithelial-Mesenchymal transition (EMT), a biological process that allows an epithelial cell to assume a mesenchymal phenotype, including enhanced migratory capacity, invasiveness, elevated resistance to apoptosis, stem-like features, and increased production of ECM components, occur during specific steps of
embryogenesis and organ development leading to final differentiation. Due to its plasticity and reversibility, terminally differentiated epithelium can transdifferentiate and change its
phenotype through EMT. This process can also be activated in pathological situation, such as tissue injury and repair or neoplastic transformation. Indeed, it is now well recognized that EMT constitutes the first step for the invasiveness and metastatic dissemination of epithelial
cancer cells. Moreover, acquisition of mesenchymal features in non-epithelial cancers, such as glioblastomas, has been associated with invasiveness and aggressiveness of the tumor, together with a worse prognosis of the patients. The transdifferentiation of epithelial
cells into motile mesenchymal cells, a process known as epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), is integral in development, wound healing and
stem cell behaviour, and contributes pathologically to fibrosis and
cancer progression. This switch in cell differentiation and behaviour is mediated by key transcription factors, including SNAIL, zinc-finger E-box-binding (ZEB) and basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors, the functions of which are finely regulated at the transcriptional, translational and post-translational levels.
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