| Popis: |
Embryonic development involves high levels of proliferation, migration, and differentiation to form all the tissues and organs of an organism. Under normal circumstances, cell–cell signaling in an embryo is coordinated both temporally and spatially to allow development to occur without error. Embryogenesis is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and many developmental signaling pathways and processes are not physiologically active in adult tissues, with notable exceptions in the maintenance of certain stem cell populations (Goldstein and Horsley 2012). However, in disease states such as cancer, malignant cells adopt similar characteristics to those seen in embryonic cells – proliferation, migration, and lack of differentiation. Over recent decades, investigation into various stages of melanocyte development has given great insight into specific characteristics of melanoma, leading to a deeper understanding of melanomagenesis. In this chapter, we review key literature describing connections between embryonic development and melanoma, including aspects of embryonic patterning and melanocyte lineage specification that are co-opted to promote melanoma progression. |
