Faculty Opinions recommendation of EMT subtype influences epithelial plasticity and mode of cell migration.
Year: 2019
Type: peer-review
Abstract: Epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) is strongly implicated in tumor cell invasion and metastasis.EMT is thought to be regulated primarily at the transcriptional level through the repressive activity of EMT transcription factors.However, these classical mechanisms have been parsed out almost exclusively in vitro, leaving questions about the programs driving EMT in physiological contexts.Here, using a lineage-labeled mouse model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma to study EMT in vivo, we found that most tumors lose their epithelial phenotype through an alternative program involving protein internalization rather than transcriptional repression, resulting in a "partial EMT" phenotype.Carcinoma cells utilizing this program migrate as clusters, contrasting with the single-cell migration pattern associated with traditionally-defined EMT mechanisms.Moreover, many breast and colorectal cancer cell lines utilize this alternative program to undergo EMT.Collectively, these results suggest that carcinoma cells have different ways of losing their epithelial program, resulting in distinct modes of invasion and dissemination.
Author: Arthur Mercurio
Institution: University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
Language: English
Topic: Cancer Cells and Metastasis
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4229565205