Distinct interactions between epithelial and mesenchymal cells control cell morphology and collective migration during sponge epithelial to mesenchymal transition

RNAs in tumour-derived extracellular vesicles and their significance in the tumour microenvironment

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) secreted by various types of cells serve as crucial mediators of intercellular communication within the complex tumour microenvironment (TME). Tumour-derived small extracellular vesicles (TDEs) are massively produced and released by tumour cells, recapitulating the specificity of their cell of origin. TDEs encapsulate a variety of RNA species, especially messenger RNAs, microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular RNAs, which release to the TME plays multifaced roles in cancer progression through mediating cell proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, and immune evasion. sEVs act as natural delivery vehicles of RNAs and can serve as useful targets for cancer therapy. This review article provides an overview of recent studies on TDEs and their RNA cargo, with emphasis on the role of these RNAs in carcinogenesis.

How studies in developmental epithelial-mesenchymal transition and mesenchymal-epithelial transition inspired new research paradigms in biomedicine

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and its reverse mechanism, mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), are evolutionarily conserved mechanisms initially identified in studies of early metazoan development. EMT may even have been established in choanoflagellates, the closest unicellular relative of Metazoa. These crucial morphological transitions operate during body plan formation and subsequently in organogenesis. These findings have prompted an increasing number of investigators in biomedicine to assess the importance of such mechanisms that drive epithelial cell plasticity in multiple diseases associated with congenital disabilities and fibrosis, and, most importantly, in the progression of carcinoma. EMT and MET also play crucial roles in regenerative medicine, notably by contributing epigenetic changes in somatic cells to initiate reprogramming into stem cells and their subsequent differentiation into distinct lineages.