let-7. Very low or very high NF-κB concentrations, for example,
will cause cells to lose their ability to acquire and maintain stemness
due to very low and very high OCT4 expression levels, respectively.
The coupling of EMT and stemness regulatory modules thus
allows for the existence of a myriad of phenotypes. Tumor cells in a
population may exhibit all or some of these phenotypes depending
on the signaling profile. Coupled with the spatial heterogeneity of
Fig. 9 The coupling parameters determine the overlap of the stemness window
(expression of OCT4 within a range) with the spectrum of EMT-associated
phenotypes. The overlap determines which of the phenotypes can acquire
stemness. In the top panel, all three phenotypes can acquire stemness. In the
middle panel, only epithelial and hybrid E/M phenotypes can acquire stemness.
In the bottom panel, only hybrid E/M and mesenchymal phenotypes can acquire
stemness
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Shubham Tripathi et al.