Expression data of mammary epithelial cells during the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Homo sapiens

The EMT program allows epithelial cells to become endowed with motility, invasiveness and stem cell traits. We investigated difference in signaling networks that are differentially utilized in EMTed and non-EMTed cells, thereby identifying therapeutic targets that are unique to EMT/cancer stem cells. Overall design: We expressed the EMT transcription factors, Twist, Snail and Slug in HMLE human mammary epithelial cells, and compared their gene expression with parental cells. We identified kinases that are more differentially regulated between the epithelial and mesenchymal cell state.