Epithelial-to-Pericyte Transition in Cancer

During epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cells lose epithelial characteristics and acquire mesenchymal properties. These two processes are genetically separable and governed by distinct transcriptional programs, rendering the EMT outputs highly heterogeneous. Our recent study shows that th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCancers Vol. 9; no. 7; p. 77
Main Authors Lu, Jianrong, Shenoy, Anitha K
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland MDPI AG 04.07.2017
MDPI
Subjects
Blood vessels
Cancer
Cell surface
Mesenchyme
Pericytes
Review
Serum response factor
Transcription
angiocrine factors
pericyte
SRF
EPT
vascular niche
myocardin-related transcription factors (MRTF)
EMT
resistance
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Summary:During epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cells lose epithelial characteristics and acquire mesenchymal properties. These two processes are genetically separable and governed by distinct transcriptional programs, rendering the EMT outputs highly heterogeneous. Our recent study shows that the mesenchymal products generated by EMT often express multiple pericyte markers, associate with and stabilize blood vessels to fuel tumor growth, thus phenotypically and functionally resembling pericytes. Therefore, some EMT events represent epithelial-to-pericyte transition (EPT). The serum response factor (SRF) plays key roles in both EMT and differentiation of pericytes, and may inherently confer the pericyte attributes on EMT cancer cells. By impacting their intratumoral location and cell surface receptor expression, EPT may enable cancer cells to receive and respond to angiocrine factors produced by the vascular niche, and develop therapy resistance.
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ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers9070077