HISTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY

Cellular and Molecular Biology

 

Review

A twist tale of cancer metastasis and tumor angiogenesis

Jen-Chieh Tseng1,2, Hsiao-Fan Chen2 and Kou-Juey Wu2

1PerkinElmer Inc., Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA and 2Research Center for Tumor Medical Science, Graduate Institute of Cancer Biology, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

Offprint requests to: Kou-Juey Wu, Research Center for Tumor Medical Science, Graduate Institute of Cancer Biology, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan. e-mail: wukj@mail.cmu.edu.tw


Summary. Twist1 is an evolutionally conserved transcription factor. Originally identified in Drosophila as a key regulator for mesoderm development, it was later implicated in many human diseases, including Saethre-Chotzen syndrome and cancer. Twist1’s involvement in cancer has been well recognized. Driven by hypoxia-induced factor-1 (HIF-1), Twist1 has been considered as a proto-oncogene and its overexpression has been observed in a wide variety of human cancers. High expression level of Twist1 is closely related to tumor aggressiveness and metastatic potential. In cancer cells, Twist1 has been shown to function as a key regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a critical process for metastasis initiation. Twist1 has also been implicated in maintaining cancer stemness for self-renewal and chemoresistance. This review first summarizes the roles of Twist1 in embryo development and Saethre-Chotzen syndrome followed by a discussion of Twist1’s critical functions in cancer. In particular, the review focuses on the recent discovery of Twist1’s capability to promote endothelial transdifferentiation of cancer cells beyond EMT. Histol Histopathol
30, 1283-1294 (2015)

Key words: Twist1, EMT, cancer stem cell, angiogenesis

DOI: 10.14670/HH-11-638