Human Gene Set: SARRIO_EPITHELIAL_MESENCHYMAL_TRANSITION_UP


Standard name SARRIO_EPITHELIAL_MESENCHYMAL_TRANSITION_UP
Systematic name M4288
Brief description Genes up-regulated in MCF10A cells (breast cancer) grown at low (mesenchymal phenotype) compared to those grown at high (epithelial, basal-like phenotype) confluency.
Full description or abstract Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is defined by the loss of epithelial characteristics and the acquisition of a mesenchymal phenotype. In carcinoma cells, EMT can be associated with increased aggressiveness, and invasive and metastatic potential. To assess the occurrence of EMT in human breast tumors, we conducted a tissue microarray-based immunohistochemical study in 479 invasive breast carcinomas and 12 carcinosarcomas using 28 different markers. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the tumors and statistical analysis showed that up-regulation of EMT markers (vimentin, smooth-muscle-actin, N-cadherin, and cadherin-11) and overexpression of proteins involved in extracellular matrix remodeling and invasion (SPARC, laminin, and fascin), together with reduction of characteristic epithelial markers (E-cadherin and cytokeratins), preferentially occur in breast tumors with the basal-like phenotype. Moreover, most breast carcinosarcomas also had a basal-like phenotype and showed expression of mesenchymal markers in their sarcomatous and epithelial components. To assess whether basal-like cells have intrinsic phenotypic plasticity for mesenchymal transition, we performed in vitro studies with the MCF10A cell line. In response to low cell density, MCF10A cells suffer spontaneous morphologic and phenotypic EMT-like changes, including cytoskeleton reorganization, vimentin and Slug up-regulation, cadherin switching, and diffuse cytosolic relocalization of the catenins. Moreover, these phenotypic changes are associated with modifications in the global genetic differentiation program characteristic of the EMT process. In summary, our data indicate that in breast tumors, EMT likely occurs within a specific genetic context, the basal phenotype, and suggests that this proclivity to mesenchymal transition may be related to the high aggressiveness and the characteristic metastatic spread of these tumors.
Collection C2: Curated
      CGP: Chemical and Genetic Perturbations
Source publication Pubmed 18281472   Authors: Sarrió D,Rodriguez-Pinilla SM,Hardisson D,Cano A,Moreno-Bueno G,Palacios J
Exact source Table 4S: Mean exp > 0
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Source species Homo sapiens
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identifier namespace		 HUMAN_SEQ_ACCESSION
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Version history 3.0: First introduced

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