A transition where an epithelial cell loses apical/basolateral polarity, severs intercellular adhesive junctions, degrades basement membrane components and becomes a migratory mesenchymal cell. [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14701881 GOC:dph ]
Term information
A transition where an epithelial cell loses apical/basolateral polarity, severs intercellular adhesive junctions, degrades basement membrane components and becomes a migratory mesenchymal cell.
mesenchymal cell differentiation from epithelial cell
epithelial-mesenchymal transition
EMT
Term relations
- cell differentiation and results in acquisition of features of some mesenchymal cell and has primary input some epithelial cell