| Epithelial markers |
EpCAM |
Down-regulated during EMT. |
| E-cadherin |
Often used to detect CTCs. |
| Cytokeratins (CK) |
| Zonula occludins (ZO) |
| Mesenchymal markers |
N-cadherin |
Highly expressed in mesenchymal cells. The switch from E-cadherin to N-cadherin is a hallmark of EMT. |
| Vimentin |
Highly expressed in mesenchymal cells, induces mesenchymal morphology. |
| Fibronectin |
Regulates cell shape. |
| Regulators |
Twist 1 |
bHLH factor, represses E-cadherin expression. |
| Snail 1 |
Zinc-finger protein, directly represses E-cadherin expression. |
| Snail 2 (Slug) |
|
| ZEB 1/ZEB 2 |
Zinc-finger E-box-binding homeobox protein, transcriptional repressor. |
| Akt and PI3K |
The PI3K/AKT/m TOR pathway is associated with proliferation and EMT. |
| FoxC 2 |
Transcriptional activator, induces EMT. |
