. 2024 Feb 22;11:1343523. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2024.1343523

TABLE 1.

CAF subsets and their biomarkers.

CAF subset	Function	Associated biomarkers	Pathways	References
iCAF	Complement activation, chemokine production, inflammatory response	APOD⁺, C7⁺, CDX2⁺, αSMA^low, IL-6⁺,	JAK-STAT, NFkβ, TNFα	Öhlund et al. (2017), Patel and Singh (2020), Luo et al. (2022), Ma et al. (2023a)
mCAF/myCAF	Angiogenesis, wound healing, ECM remodeling, organization, biosynthesis of collagen	COL10A1⁺, POSTN⁺, MMP11⁺, SDC1⁺, αSMA⁺,	PTK2, FAK, PDGF, MET	Öhlund et al. (2017), Ma et al. (2023a)
apCAF	Activate CD4⁺ T cells in an antigen-specific manner, immune-modulatory effects	HLA-DRA⁺, HLA-DRB1⁺, CD74⁺	-	Elyada et al. (2019)
meCAF	Metabolic reprogramming (enrichment in glycolysis, metabolism of alanine, aspartate, and glutamate)	PLA2G2A⁺, CRABP2⁺, LDHB⁺	MYC	Lavie et al. (2022), Luo et al. (2022), Ma et al. (2023a)
pCAF	Regulation of cell cycle, IFN-I production	CENPF⁺, NUSAP1⁺, PTTG1⁺, STYMN1⁺, TOP2A⁺, TUBA1B⁺, MYBL2⁺, E2F2⁺	-	Galbo et al. (2021), Ma et al. (2023a)
vCAF	Vasculature development	Nidogen-2⁺, CD248⁺	-	Bartoschek et al. (2018)
dCAF	Production of basement membrane products and paracrine signaling molecules	SCRG1⁺, CD10⁺, Gpr77⁺, SDE genes⁺	-	Bartoschek et al. (2018)
Breast cancer
CAF-S1	Attract and retain CD4⁺CD25⁺ T cells, increase CD25⁺FOXP3⁺	CAV-1^low, CD29^med, FAP^high, FSP-1^low-high, αSMA^high, PDGFRβ^med-high	OX40L, PD-L2, JAM2	Costa et al. (2018)
CAF-S2	Unknown	CAV-1^neg, CD29^low, FAP^neg, FSP-1^neg-low, αSMA^neg-low, PDGFRβ^neg	-	Costa et al. (2018)
CAF-S3	Accumulate in juxta-tumors, share features with non-neoplastic cells	CAV-1^neg-low, CD29^med, FAP^neg, FSP-1^med-high, αSMA^neg-low, PDGFRβ^med	-	Costa et al. (2018)
CAF-S4	Opposite effect to S1	CAV-1^neg-low, CD29^high, FAP^neg, FSP-1^low-med, αSMA^high, PDGFRβ^low-med	-	Costa et al. (2018)