Regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition by transmission of mechanical stress through epithelial tissues

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a phenotypic shift wherein epithelial cells lose or loosen attachments to their neighbors and assume a mesenchymal-like morphology. EMT drives a variety of developmental processes, but may also be adopted by tumor cells during neoplastic progression. EMT is regulated by both biochemical and physical signals from the microenvironment, including mechanical stress, which is increasingly recognized to play a major role in development and disease progression. Biological systems generate, transmit and concentrate mechanical stress into spatial patterns; these gradients in mechanical stress may serve to spatially pattern developmental and pathologic EMTs. Here we review how epithelial tissues generate and respond to mechanical stress gradients, and highlight the mechanisms by which mechanical stress regulates and patterns EMT.