Epithelial –mesenchymal transition, a spectrum of states: Role in lung development, homeostasis, and disease

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays key roles during lung development and many lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and pulmonary fibrosis. Here, integrating morphological observations with underlying molecular mechanisms, we highlight the functional role of EMT in lung development and injury repair, and discuss how it can contribute to pathogenesis of chronic lung disease. We discuss the evidence of manifestation of EMT and its potential driving role in COPD, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), and lung cancer, while noting that all cells need not display a full EMT in any of these contexts, i.e., often cells co‐express epithelial and mesenchymal markers but do not fully convert to extracellular matrix (ECM) ‐producing fibroblasts. Finally, we discuss recent therapeutic attempts to restrict EMT in chronic lung disease. Developmental Dynamics, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Source: Developmental Dynamics - July 21, 2017 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Mohit Kumar Jolly, Chris Ward, Mathew Suji Eapen, Stephen Myers, Oskar Hallgren, Herbert Levine, Sukhwinder Singh Sohal Tags: Review Source Type: research