Table 1.

Comparison of differences between epithelial and mesenchymal cells.

Feature	Epithelial Cells	Mesenchymal Cells
Morphology	Polygonal, pebble-like shape	Elongated, spindle-shaped [47]
Polarity	Apical–basal	Front–back [50]
Invasion ability	No mobility	Enhanced movement and raiding capabilities [55]
Cytoskeleton	Express cytokeratins	Express vimentin
Intercellular junction	Tight junctions, adherens junctions, and desmosomes	Loosely attached to the extracellular matrix [55]
Interactions with extracellular matrix	Via integrin α6β4 at hemidesmosomes; linked to cytokeratins	Via β1-containing or β3-containing integrins at adhesion plaques; linked to actin stress fibers [44,50]
Markers	Junctional proteins, epithelial markers, matrix proteins	Matrix proteins, proteases, mesenchymal markers [56]