Fig. 2.

Intracellular modulation involved in cellular dormancy. Regulation of cell cycle machinery, such as the Rb-E2F and DREAM complexes, ECM-mediated signal transduction, p38 MAPK activation, growth factors (TGF-β family growth factors and IGFs), and ER stress-induced UPR and acquisition of senescence, autophagy, EMT, and cancer stem cell–associated phenotypes are known to be associated with cellular dormancy. DREAM, dimerization partner, Rb-like, E2F and multi-vulval class B; ECM, extracellular matrix; EMT, epithelial-mesenchymal transition; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; IGF, insulin-like growth factor; MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinase; Rb, retinoblastoma; TGF-β, transforming growth factor-β; UPR, unfolded protein response.