Out of the desert: the 4th TEMTIA Meeting on new advances in development, fibrosis and cancer.

摘要

Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a basic cellular process by which epithelial cells change their phenotype and become invasive cells within a three-dimensional setting. The embryo uses EMT to form three-dimensional tissues from sheets of cells while the majority of EMT in the adult produces pathologies. Examples of EMT in the embryo include gastrulation, neural crest cell formation, heart valve and fibroblast formation and breakdown of the mullerian duct in the reproductive system. In pathology, kidney/liver fibrosis and cancer progression/metastasis have been shown to invoke EMT mechanisms.