Snail family proteins are core EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition) regulatory factors that play essential roles in both development and disease processes and have been associated with metastasis in carcinomas. Snail factors are required for the formation of neural crest stem cells in most vertebrate embryos, as well as for the migratory invasive behavior of these cells. Snail factors have r...

Vertebrate members of the zinc finger transcription factor family related to Drosophila snail are expressed in neural crest and paraxial mesoderm along the left-right axis of the embryo. As simple deuterostomes, echinoderms are an important sister phylum for the chordates. We have identified populations of patterned, nonskeletogenic mesenchyme in the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus by their ex...

Snail, a zinc finger transcription factor, induces an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in various cancer and epithelial cells. We investigated the function of Snail (SNAI1) by downregulating its expression with short interfering RNA (siRNA). Suppression of Snail expression induced cellular senescence in several cancer cells and in normal fibroblast IMR90 cells. Cancer progression is faci...

Patients with pancreatic cancer, which is characterized by an extensive collagen-rich fibrotic reaction, often present with metastases. A critical step in cancer metastasis is epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which can be orchestrated by the Snail family of transcription factors. To understand the role of Snail (SNAI1) in pancreatic cancer development, we generated transgenic mice ex...

Purpose: There are few molecular markers known to predict upper urinary tract urothelial carcinomas (UTUC) prognosis. Snail, which contributes to epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), has been documented in cancer progression, but not clear yet in UTUC. We therefore addressed the expression and biological significance of Snail in UTUC. Experimental Design: To elucidate the biological signifi...

Inset appendages such as the wing and the leg are formed in response to inductive signals in the embryonic field. In Drosophila, cells receiving such signals initiate developmental programs which allow them to become imaginal discs. Subsequently, these discs autonomously organize patterns specific for each appendage. We here report that two related transcription factors, Escargot and Snail that...

The transcription factors Snail, Slug and Twist repress E-cadherin and induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process exploited by invasive cancer cells. In this study, we evaluated the role of EMT in the tumorgenesis of neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas (PNETs) in vitro, in vivo and human tumor specimen. Expression of EMT markers was analyzed using immunohistochemistry and real-...

The maternal Toll signaling pathway sets up a nuclear gradient of the transcription factor Dorsal in the early Drosophila embryo. Dorsal activates twist and snail, and the Dorsal/Twist/Snail network activates and represses other zygotic genes to form the correct expression patterns along the dorsoventral axis. An essential function of this patterning is to promote ventral cell invagination duri...

Snail family genes are conserved among species during evolution and encode transcription factors expressed at different stages of development in different tissues. These genes are involved in a broad spectrum of biological functions: cell differentiation, cell motility, cell cycle regulation, and apoptosis. However, little is known about the target genes involved in these functions. Here we sho...

Chronic inflammation-promoted metastasis has been considered as a major challenge in cancer therapy. Pro-inflammatory cytokine TNFα can induce cancer invasion and metastasis associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, the underlying mechanisms are not entirely clear. In this study, we showed that TNFα induces EMT in human HCT116 cells and thereby promotes colorectal cancer...