E-cadherin, beta-catenin, and ZEB1 in malignant progression of cancer - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

E-cadherin, beta-catenin, and ZEB1 in malignant progression of cancer

Otto Schmalhofer et al. Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2009 Jun.

Abstract

The embryonic program 'epithelial-mesenchymal transition' (EMT) is activated during tumor invasion in disseminating cancer cells. Characteristic to these cells is a loss of E-cadherin expression, which can be mediated by EMT-inducing transcriptional repressors, e.g. ZEB1. Consequences of a loss of E-cadherin are an impairment of cell-cell adhesion, which allows detachment of cells, and nuclear localization of beta-catenin. In addition to an accumulation of cancer stem cells, nuclear beta-catenin induces a gene expression pattern favoring tumor invasion, and mounting evidence indicates multiple reciprocal interactions of E-cadherin and beta-catenin with EMT-inducing transcriptional repressors to stabilize an invasive mesenchymal phenotype of epithelial tumor cells.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources