%0 Journal Article
%T Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Induces Endoplasmic-Reticulum-Stress Response in Human Colorectal Tumor Cells
%A Evelyn Zeindl-Eberhart
%A Lydia Brandl
%A Sibylle Liebmann
%A Steffen Ormanns
%A Silvio K. Scheel
%A Thomas Brabletz
%A Thomas Kirchner
%A Andreas Jung
%J PLOS ONE
%D 2014
%I Public Library of Science (PLoS)
%R 10.1371/journal.pone.0087386
%X Tumor cells are stressed by unfavorable environmental conditions like hypoxia or starvation. Driven by the resulting cellular stress tumor cells undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Additionally, cellular stress is accompanied by endoplasmic reticulum-stress which induces an unfolded protein response. It is unknown if epithelial-mesenchymal transition and endoplasmic reticulum-stress are occurring as independent parallel events or if an interrelationship exists between both of them. Here, we show that in colorectal cancer cells endoplasmic reticulum-stress depends on the induction of ZEB-1, which is a main factor of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. In the absence of ZEB-1 colorectal cancer cells cannot mount endoplasmic reticulum-stress as a reaction on cellular stress situations like hypoxia or starvation. Thus, our data suggest that there is a hierarchy in the development of cellular stress which starts with the presence of environmental stress that induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition which allows finally endoplasmic reticulum-stress. This finding highlights the central role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition during the process of tumorigenesis as epithelial-mesenchymal transition is also associated with chemoresistance and cancer stemness. Consequently, endoplasmic reticulum-stress might be a well suited target for chemotherapy of colorectal cancers.
%U http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0087386