Open AccessHacking cell differentiation: transcriptional rerouting in reprogramming, lineage infidelity and metaplasia
Author(s) -
Regalo Gonçalo,
Leutz Achim
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
embo molecular medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.923
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1757-4684
pISSN - 1757-4676
DOI - 10.1002/emmm.201302834
Subject(s) - reprogramming , lineage (genetic) , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , cellular differentiation , metaplasia , hacker , cell lineage , cell , genetics , gene , medicine , computer science , pathology , computer security
Initiating neoplastic cell transformation events are of paramount importance for the comprehension of regeneration and vanguard oncogenic processes but are difficult to characterize and frequently clinically overlooked. In epithelia, pre‐neoplastic transformation stages are often distinguished by the appearance of phenotypic features of another differentiated tissue, termed metaplasia. In haemato/lymphopoietic malignancies, cell lineage ambiguity is increasingly recorded. Both, metaplasia and biphenotypic leukaemia/lymphoma represent examples of dysregulated cell differentiation that reflect a history of trans‐differentiation and/or epigenetic reprogramming. Here we compare the similarity between molecular events of experimental cell trans‐differentiation as an emerging therapeutic concept, with lineage confusion, as in metaplasia and dysplasia forecasting tumour development.