摘要
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)and proliferation play important roles in epithelial cancer formation and progression,but what molecules and how they trigger EMT is largely unknown.Here we performed spatial transcriptomic and functional analyses on samples of multistage esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma(ESCC)from mice and humans to decipher these critical issues.By investigating spatiotemporal gene expression patterns and cell–cell interactions,we demonstrated that the aberrant epithelial cell interaction via EFNB1-EPHB4 triggers EMT and cell cycle mediated by downstream SRC/ERK/AKT signaling.The aberrant epithelial cell interaction occurs within the basal layer at early precancerous lesions,which expands to the whole epithelial layer and strengthens along the cancer development and progression.Functional analysis revealed that the aberrant EFNB1-EPHB4 interaction is caused by overexpressedΔNP63 due to TP53 mutation,the culprit in human ESCC tumorigenesis.Our results shed new light on the role of TP53-TP63/ΔNP63-EFNB1-EPHB4 axis in EMT and cell proliferation in epithelial cancer formation.
基金
funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(81988101 to D.L.and to C.W.)
National Key Research and Development Program of China(2021YFC2501000 to D.L.)
Medical and Health Technology Innovation Project of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences(2021-I2M-1-013 to D.L.and to C.W.,2022-I2M-2-003 and 2022-I2M-JB-002 to D.L.)
Beijing Outstanding Young Scientist Program(BJJWZYJH01201910023027 to C.W.).
