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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Apr 28.
Published in final edited form as: Cancer Biol Ther. 2010 Jun 11;9(12):949–956. doi: 10.4161/cbt.9.12.12347

Figure 2. Hypoxia Facilitates the Evolution of Cancer Stem Cell Niche.

Figure 2

Tumor hypoxia develops mainly due to the abnormal structures and functions of tumor-associated blood vessels. Three potential mechanisms by which hypoxia regulates maintenance and differentiation of cancer stem cells can be envisioned. First, hypoxia directly prevents cancer stem cells from undergoing differentiation by activating intracellular stem cell pathways. Second, hypoxia maintains niche stromal cells in an undifferentiated state to support the self-renewing cancer stem cells. Third, hypoxia may potentially regulate the expression of paracrine factors by endothelial cells for the maintenance of cancer stem cells located in the periendothelial niche.