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Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transitions in Development and Cancer

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The Epithelial-to Mesenchymal Transition

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2179))

Abstract

The evolutionary emergence of the mesenchymal phenotype greatly increased the complexity of tissue architecture and composition in early Metazoan species. At the molecular level, an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was permitted by the innovation of specific transcription factors whose expression is sufficient to repress the epithelial transcriptional program. The reverse process, mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET), involves direct inhibition of EMT transcription factors by numerous mechanisms including tissue-specific MET-inducing transcription factors (MET-TFs), micro-RNAs, and changes to cell and tissue architecture, thus providing an elegant solution to the need for tight temporal and spatial control over EMT and MET events during development and adult tissue homeostasis.

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Acknowledgments

Funding: Work in the Röper lab is supported by the Medical Research Council (file reference number U105178780 and BSF30).

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  1. MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK

    John-Poul Ng-Blichfeldt & Katja Röper

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  1. John-Poul Ng-Blichfeldt
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Correspondence to John-Poul Ng-Blichfeldt .

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  1. Department of Biomedical Science and Bateson Centre, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Kyra Campbell

  2. Centre de Biologie du Développement (CBD) Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Eric Theveneau

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Ng-Blichfeldt, JP., Röper, K. (2021). Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transitions in Development and Cancer. In: Campbell, K., Theveneau, E. (eds) The Epithelial-to Mesenchymal Transition. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2179. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0779-4_7

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