Plasticity of tumor cell migration: acquisition of new properties or return to the past?

• Published in: Biochemistry (Moscow) Vol. 79; no. 9; pp. 947 - 963
• Main Author: Alexandrova, A. Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.09.2014; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Bioorganic Chemistry; Cancer; Cancer cells; Cell adhesion & migration; Cell migration; Cell Movement; Cell research; Humans; Life Sciences; Microbiology; Neoplasms - metabolism; Neoplasms - pathology; Oncology, Experimental; Physiological aspects; Review; Signal transduction; Tumors; Russia; mesenchymal-amoeboid transition; small GTPases; lamellipodia; actin cortex; bleb; epithelial-mesenchymal transition; filopodia
• ISSN: 0006-2979; 1608-3040
• DOI: 10.1134/S0006297914090107

During tumor development cancer cells pass through several stages when cell morphology and migration abilities change remarkably. These stages are named epithelial-mesenchymal and mesenchymal-amoeboid transitions. The molecular mechanisms underlying cell motility are changing during these transitions. As result of transitions the cells acquire new characteristics and modes of motility. Cell migration becomes more independent from the environmental conditions, and thus cell dissemination becomes more aggressive, which leads to formation of distant metastases. In this review we discuss the characteristics of each of the transitions, cell morphology, and the specificity of cellular structures responsible for different modes of cell motility as well as molecular mechanisms regulating each transition.