ISSN: 1755-5191

Imaging in Medicine

Epithelial- Mesenchymal Transition

 The epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a procedure by which epithelial cells lose their cell polarity and cell-cell adhesion, and increase migratory and aggressive properties to become mesenchymal stem cells; these are multipotent stromal cells that can distinguish into a variety of cell types. EMT is essential for numerous developmental processes including mesoderm formation and neural tube formation. EMT has also been shown to happen in wound healing, in organ fibrosis and in the beginning of metastasis in cancer progression. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition was first documented as a feature of embryogenesis by Betty Hay in the 1980s. EMT, and its reverse process, MET (mesenchymal-epithelial transition) are dangerous for development of many tissues and organs in the developing embryo, and numerous emergent events such as gastrulation, neural crest formation, heart valve creation, secondary palate development, and myogenesis. Epithelial and mesenchyme cells differ in phenotype as well as function, though both share intrinsic plasticity. Epithelial cells are closely connected to each other by tight junctions, gap junctions and adherens junctions, have an apico-basal polarity, divergence of the actin cytoskeleton and are bound by a basal lamina at their basal surface. Mesenchymal cells, on the other hand, lack this polarization, have a spindle-shaped morphology and interrelate with each other only through focal points. Epithelial cells express high levels of E-cadherin, whereas mesenchyme cells direct those of N-cadherin, fibronectin and vimentin. Thus, EMT entails profound morphological and phenotypic variations to a cell.

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