The Role of Insulin-like Growth Factors in the Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition

IGFs (insulin-like growth factors) are peptides known to stimulate a wide range of actions on different tissues. Indeed, IGFs can stimulate anabolism, acute metabolic effects as well as enhancing more chronic effects such as cell proliferation and differentiation together with protecting cells from apoptosis. Recently, it was shown that IGFs induce an epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), a crucial morphogenic event during development and transformation. Here, the cellular and molecular aspects of IGF-induced EMT are reviewed. Major signaling pathways downstream of IGFs are described in order to introduce molecules that are believed to convey the EMT signal. The roles and targets of these molecules are analysed. The importance of IGFs in cellular events which when dysregulated lead to neoplasia is discussed in this review.