KRas-transformed epithelia cells invade and partially dedifferentiate by basal cell extrusion.

Metastasis is the main cause of carcinoma-related death, yet we know little about how it initiates due to our inability to visualize stochastic invasion events. Classical models suggest that cells accumulate mutations that first drive formation of a primary mass, and then downregulate epithelia-specific genes to cause invasion and metastasis. Here, using transparent zebrafish epidermis to model simple epithelia, we can directly image invasion. We find that KRas-transformation, implicated in early carcinogenesis steps, directly drives cell invasion by hijacking a process epithelia normally use to promote death-cell extrusion. Cells invading by basal cell extrusion simultaneously pinch off their apical epithelial determinants, endowing new plasticity. Following invasion, cells divide, enter the bloodstream, and differentiate into stromal, neuronal-like, and other cell types. Yet, only invading KRasV12 cells deficient in p53 survive and form internal masses. Together, we demonstrate that KRas-transformation alone causes cell invasion and partial dedifferentiation, independently of mass formation.

Tumour cell invasion: an emerging role for basal epithelial cell extrusion.

Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, but it is unclear how cancer cells escape their primary sites in epithelia and disseminate to other sites in the body. One emerging possibility is that transformed epithelial cells could invade the underlying tissue by a process called cell extrusion, which epithelia use to remove cells without disrupting their barrier function. Typically, during normal cell turnover, live cells extrude apically from the epithelium into the lumen and later die by anoikis; however, several oncogenic mutations shift cell extrusion basally, towards the tissue that the epithelium encases. Tumour cells with high levels of survival and motility signals could use basal extrusion to escape from the tissue and migrate to other sites within the body.