Identifying cancer-associated fibroblasts as emerging targets for hepatocellular carcinoma

Cell & Bioscience

Qianqian Song¹  Mingbing Xiao²  Mengqi Zhu²  Yuqing Xu²  Jie Zhang²  Wenjie Zheng²  Chaoyu Gu³ 

[1] Department of Radiology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, One Medical Center Boulevard, 27157, Winston-Salem, NC, USA;Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, 20 Xisi Road, 226001, Nantong, Jiangsu, China;School of Medicine, Nantong University, 19 Qixiu Road, 226001, Nantong, Jiangsu, China;

关键词: Cancer-associated fibroblasts;    Hepatocellular carcinoma;    Tumor microenvironment;    Molecular target;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13578-020-00488-y

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a complex multicellular functional compartment that includes fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, endothelial cells, immune cells, and extracellular matrix (ECM) elements. The microenvironment provides an optimum condition for the initiation, growth, and dissemination of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). As one of the critical and abundant components in tumor microenvironment, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been implicated in the progression of HCC. Through secreting various growth factors and cytokines, CAFs contribute to the ECM remodeling, stem features, angiogenesis, immunosuppression, and vasculogenic mimicry (VM), which reinforce the initiation and development of HCC. In order to restrain the CAFs-initiated HCC progression, current strategies include targeting specific markers, engineering CAFs with tumor-suppressive phenotype, depleting CAFs’ precursors, and repressing the secretions or downstream signaling. In this review, we update the emerging understanding of CAFs in HCC, with particular emphasis on cellular origin, phenotypes, biological functions and targeted strategies. It provides insights into the targeting CAFs for HCC treatment.

【 授权许可】

CC BY