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Loss of E-Cadherin Promotes Metastasis via Multiple Downstream Transcriptional Pathways

¹ Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research; ² Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and ³ Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts; ⁴ Department of Pharmacology and Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, La Jolla, California; and ⁵ Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Requests for reprints: Robert A. Weinberg, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142. Phone: 617-258-5159; Fax: 617-258-5213; E-mail: Weinberg{at}wi.mit.edu.

Key Words: E-cadherin • epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition • EMT • adhesion • disaggregationl • metastasis • invasion • anoikis • β-catenin • Twist

Loss of the epithelial adhesion molecule E-cadherin is thought to enable metastasis by disrupting intercellular contacts—an early step in metastatic dissemination. To further investigate the molecular basis of this notion, we use two methods to inhibit E-cadherin function that distinguish between E-cadherin's cell-cell adhesion and intracellular signaling functions. Whereas the disruption of cell-cell contacts alone does not enable metastasis, the loss of E-cadherin protein does, through induction of an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, invasiveness, and anoikis resistance. We find the E-cadherin binding partner β-catenin to be necessary, but not sufficient, for induction of these phenotypes. In addition, gene expression analysis shows that E-cadherin loss results in the induction of multiple transcription factors, at least one of which, Twist, is necessary for E-cadherin loss–induced metastasis. These findings indicate that E-cadherin loss in tumors contributes to metastatic dissemination by inducing wide-ranging transcriptional and functional changes. [Cancer Res 2008;68(10):3645–53]

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