An Overview of Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition and Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transition in Canine Tumors: How Far Have We Come?

Abstract

Historically, pre-clinical and clinical studies in human medicine have provided new insights, pushing forward the contemporary knowledge. The new results represented a motivation for investigators in specific fields of veterinary medicine, who addressed the same research topics from different perspectives in studies based on experimental and spontaneous animal disease models. The study of different pheno-genotypic contexts contributes to the confirmation of translational models of pathologic mechanisms. This review provides an overview of EMT and MET processes in both human and canine species. While human medicine rapidly advances, having a large amount of information available, veterinary medicine is not at the same level. This situation should provide motivation for the veterinary medicine research field, to apply the knowledge on humans to research in pets. By merging the knowledge of these two disciplines, better and faster results can be achieved, thus improving human and canine health.

Keywords

• epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)
• mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET)
• canine tumors
• translational medicine