title: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis: yes, no, maybe?
abstract: An epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process of cell remodeling critical during embryonic development and organogenesis. During an EMT, epithelial cells lose their polarized organization and acquire migratory and invasive capabilities. While a plethora of experimental results have indicated that manipulating an EMT also affects cancer metastasis, its reverse process, a mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET), seems to support metastatic outgrowth in distant organs. Moreover, recent reports investigating cancer cells circulating in the blood stream or employing genetic lineage-tracing have questioned a critical role of an EMT in metastasis formation. Hence, we need to better understand the molecular networks underlying the cell plasticity conferred by an EMT or a MET and its functional contribution to malignant tumor progression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diepenbruck
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Christofori
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018450:Disease Progression; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / Q000235:genetics; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology