When it comes to the mechanisms of tumor growth, the differences between epithelial and mesenchymal cell types are important to note. Normal epithelial cells are uniform, stationary and structured to bind together—forming a type of lining on/in organs (such as the outer layer of the skin), some cavities and blood vessels throughout the body. Normal mesenchymal cells are differentiated into a variety of mature cell types, including connective tissue, cartilage, lymphatic tissue, bone tissues, and etc.
Remarkably, these cells are capable of swapping phenotypes (given proper stimulation) and making epithelial-to-mesenchymal (and mesenchymal-to-epithelial) transitions (EMT). After the process of EMT, the former epithelial cells lose their cell-to-cell capacity and are endowed with migratory and invasive mesenchymal traits—with the potential to differentiate into a variety of cell lines. This process not only occurs in normal cells, but also in cancer cells. EMT enables cancer cells to transition into fluid mesenchymal traits and out of ridged and vulnerable epithelial phenotypes. Researchers believe that oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) at the core of solid tumors contributes to stimulating the formation of new vascular networks (neoangiogenesis), which induces the process of EMT to turn cancer cells stem-like.
“Hypoxia stimulates neoangiogenesis, promoting tumor outgrowth, and triggers the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which bestows cells with mesenchymal traits and multi-lineage differentiation potential.”
However, researchers have not yet established a direct connection between the induction of EMT and the onset of neoangiogenesis in vivo. From The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas A&M University, and Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, researchers conducted a study to determine whether cells undergoing EMT in a hypoxic environment “can acquire endothelial cell attributes and augment tumor growth by directly contributing to the tumor vasculature.” The proliferation of endothelial cells forms new blood vessels. Signals from endothelial cells can organize the growth and development of new endothelial cells. In April of 2021, the team published a research paper with Oncotarget on the significance of their study results, entitled, “Carcinoma cells that have undergone an epithelial-mesenchymal transition differentiate into endothelial cells and contribute to tumor growth.”
Full blog - https://www.impactjournals.com/journals/blog/oncotarget/trending-with-impact-mesenchymal-stem-cells-promote-neoangiogenesis/
Press release - https://www.oncotarget.com/news/pr/epithelial-mesenchymal-transitions-create-endothelial-cells-tumor-growth/
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DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27940
Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27940/text/
Correspondence to - Tapasree Roy Sarkar - tsarkar@bio.tamu.edu
Keywords - angiogenesis, endothelial transdifferentiation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, vasculogenic mimicry, FOXC2
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