Epithelial Morphogenesis in Development and Disease

Bringing together a series of articles on the structural, functional, and developmental characteristics of epithelia, this volume represents a timely and valuable contribution to a growing field of study. Divided into three sections, the first part highlights the typical features of epithelia that can be understood in molecular terms: adhesive properties, interactions with neighboring cells and with the extracellular matrix, epithelial transport, and epithelial-specific gene regulation.The first cell types that emerge during development already show epithelial characteristics. The second section describes the generation and morphogenesis of the first epithelia, molecular control of epithelial-mesenchymal conversions (mesoderm formation) as well as molecular characteristics of mesenchymal-epithelial interactions.Defects in epithelial function and growth control play a major role in human disease, e.g., skin pathologies, and in the development of carcinomas which comprise more than 90% of human tumors. Malignant carcinomas cannot be understood without knowledge of the biological characteristics of epithelia. The third and final section discusses the molecularly well understood pathologies of epithelia such as loss of differentiation in carcinomas.