Figure 2.

During epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), the cells lose epithelial characteristics and markers and acquire a more mesenchymal phenotype. This is a gradual transformation process, from a highly differentiated state to an undifferentiated one. The opposite process or mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) is also possible. Therefore, in both EMT and MET, the cells can express intermediate phenotypes with both epithelial and mesenchymal features, like the ones from the ovarian superficial epithelium.