Abstract
Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a physiological process necessary to normal embryologic development. However in genesis of pathological situations, this transition can be perverted and signaling pathways have different regulations from those of normal physiology. In cancer invasion, such a mechanism leads to generation of circulating tumor cells. Epithelial cancer cells become motile mesenchymal cells able to shed from the primary tumor and enter in the blood circulation. This is the major part of the invasive way of cancer. EMT is also implicated in chronic diseases like fibrosis and particularly renal fibrosis. In adult organisms, healing is based on EMT which is beneficial to repair wounds even if it can sometimes exceed its goal and elicit fibrosis. In this review, we delineate the clinical significance of EMT in both physiological and pathological circumstances.
Highlights
Epithelial tissues are the basis of most complex organs
If epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a pathological phenomenon in cancer, its embryonic mirror picture will lead to organogenesis, necessary to living beings development
In a fully developed organism, when EMT is perverted, its activation is accountable for pathological situations as demonstrated in cancer and fibrosis diseases
Summary
Epithelial tissues are the basis of most complex organs. Apical-basal polarity, cell-cell junctions allow tight physical coupling and enable epithelial cells to form sheet structures of generally crystalline order [1,2]. Epithelial sheets can actively migrate during physiological or pathological processes: embryogenesis, wound healing and cancer development. Rather than being all-or-nothing EMT is a fine-tuned manner regulated transition for each individual cancer cells. In this review we will consider EMT through embryogenesis, in pathological situations like wound healing, fibrosis and in oncologic relapses and metastasis.
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