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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jan 5.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Cancer. 2014 May 15;14(6):430–439. doi: 10.1038/nrc3726

Figure 2. Hypoxia promotes ECM remodelling to facilitate metastasis.

Figure 2

Extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling is tightly controlled to maintain tissue integrity. Cancer cells and associated stromal cells that have been exposed to hypoxia are transcriptionally reprogrammed to produce: matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and other proteases, which degrade the basement membrane surrounding a tumour (part a); aligned collagen fibres within the interstitial matrix, which function as a highway for local invasion, intravasation and metastasis (part b); and growth factors, which might be retained in the fibrotic microenvironment and function as chemotactic signals that recruit and activate stromal cells to further promote cancer progression (part c).