Chaffer Christine L, Thompson Erik W, Williams Elizabeth D
Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery, Melbourne, Australia.
Cells Tissues Organs. 2007;185(1-3):7-19. doi: 10.1159/000101298.
Cellular plasticity is fundamental to embryonic development. The importance of cellular transitions in development is first apparent during gastrulation when the process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition transforms polarized epithelial cells into migratory mesenchymal cells that constitute the embryonic and extraembryonic mesoderm. It is now widely accepted that this developmental pathway is exploited in various disease states, including cancer progression. The loss of epithelial characteristics and the acquisition of a mesenchymal-like migratory phenotype are crucial to the development of invasive carcinoma and metastasis. However, given the morphological similarities between primary tumour and metastatic lesions, it is likely that tumour cells re-activate certain epithelial properties through a mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) at the secondary site, although this is yet to be proven. MET is also an essential developmental process and has been extensively studied in kidney organogenesis and somitogenesis. In this review we describe the process of MET, highlight important mediators, and discuss their implication in the context of cancer progression.
细胞可塑性是胚胎发育的基础。细胞转变在发育过程中的重要性首先在原肠胚形成期间显现出来，此时上皮-间质转化过程将极化的上皮细胞转变为构成胚胎和胚外中胚层的迁移性间质细胞。现在人们普遍认为，这条发育途径在包括癌症进展在内的各种疾病状态中都有被利用。上皮特征的丧失和间充质样迁移表型的获得对于浸润性癌的发展和转移至关重要。然而，鉴于原发性肿瘤和转移灶之间的形态相似性，肿瘤细胞很可能在继发部位通过间质-上皮转化（MET）重新激活某些上皮特性，尽管这一点尚未得到证实。MET也是一个重要的发育过程，并且已经在肾脏器官发生和体节发生中得到了广泛研究。在这篇综述中，我们描述了MET的过程，强调了重要的介导因子，并讨论了它们在癌症进展背景下的意义。
