Tanabe Shihori
Division of Risk Assessment, Center for Biological Safety and Research, National Institute of Health Sciences, Kawasaki, 210-9501, Japan.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2022;1393:1-49. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-12974-2_1.
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a cellular phenotypic change from epithelial to mesenchymal-like features, is related to the resistance and metastasis of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Several signal transduction mechanisms induce EMT, which causes the gene expression alteration to induce the acquisition of resistance and metastasis in cancer. EMT is characterized with high gene expression of cadherin 2 (N-cadherin) and vimentin, and sparse cell-cell junction. The cells with EMT-phenotype have migration, metastasis and drug-resistance capacity, which are main characteristics of CSCs. It seems that the main population of CSCs exhibits EMT phenotype, whereas some populations consist of phenotypes other than EMT. In this chapter, EMT mechanism, phenotypic features of EMT and CSCs, signal transduction in EMT and CSCs, differences between EMT and CSCs, and the role of EMT in CSCs are described.
上皮-间质转化（EMT）是一种细胞表型从上皮样特征向间质样特征的转变，与癌症干细胞（CSC）的耐药性和转移有关。几种信号转导机制可诱导EMT，这会导致基因表达改变，从而促使癌症获得耐药性和转移能力。EMT的特征是钙黏蛋白2（N-钙黏蛋白）和波形蛋白的基因高表达，以及细胞间连接稀疏。具有EMT表型的细胞具有迁移、转移和耐药能力，这些都是CSC的主要特征。似乎CSC的主要群体表现出EMT表型，而有些群体则由EMT以外的表型组成。在本章中，将描述EMT机制、EMT和CSC的表型特征、EMT和CSC中的信号转导、EMT与CSC的差异以及EMT在CSC中的作用。
