PUBLICATION

Notch promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition during cardiac development and oncogenic transformation

Authors
Timmerman, L.A., Grego-Bessa, J., Raya, A., Bertran, E., Perez-Pomares, J.M., Diez, J., Aranda, S., Palomo, S., McCormick, F., Izpisúa Belmonte, J.C., and De La Pompa, J.L.
ID
ZDB-PUB-040109-17
Date
2004
Source
Genes & Development   18(1): 99-115 (Journal)
Registered Authors
de la Pompa, José Luis, Izpisúa Belmonte, Juan Carlos, Raya, Angel
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/genetics*
  • Embryo, Nonmammalian/physiology
  • Embryonic and Fetal Development
  • Epithelial Cells/cytology*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/genetics*
  • Heart/embryology*
  • Membrane Proteins/genetics*
  • Mesoderm/cytology*
  • Mice
  • Organ Culture Techniques
  • Rats
  • Receptors, Cell Surface/genetics
  • Receptors, Notch
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Zebrafish/embryology
PubMed
14701881 Full text @ Genes & Dev.
Abstract
Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is fundamental to both embryogenesis and tumor metastasis. The Notch intercellular signaling pathway regulates cell fate determination throughout metazoan evolution, and overexpression of activating alleles is oncogenic in mammals. Here we demonstrate that Notch activity promotes EMT during both cardiac development and oncogenic transformation via transcriptional induction of the Snail repressor, a potent and evolutionarily conserved mediator of EMT in many tissues and tumor types. In the embryonic heart, Notch functions via lateral induction to promote a selective transforming growth factor-beta (TGFbeta)-mediated EMT that leads to cellularization of developing cardiac valvular primordia. Embryos that lack Notch signaling elements exhibit severely attenuated cardiac snail expression, abnormal maintenance of intercellular endocardial adhesion complexes, and abortive endocardial EMT in vivo and in vitro. Accordingly, transient ectopic expression of activated Notch1 (N1IC) in zebrafish embryos leads to hypercellular cardiac valves, whereas Notch inhibition prevents valve development. Overexpression of N1IC in immortalized endothelial cells in vitro induces EMT accompanied by oncogenic transformation, with corresponding induction of snail and repression of VE-cadherin expression. Notch is expressed in embryonic regions where EMT occurs, suggesting an intimate and fundamental role for Notch, which may be reactivated during tumor metastasis.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping