Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Aug 7.
Published in final edited form as: Opera Med Physiol. 2016 Dec 25;2(3-4):181–187. doi: 10.20388/omp2016.003.0040

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Schematic Diagram of the Tumorigenic Niche. Brain tumor stem cells (BTSC) interact closely with niche components that include factors released by the endothelial cells that make up the enhanced tumor vasculature, pericytes, and other tumor cell types. In cases where BTSCs are in close contact with the lateral ventricles, these cells may also be receptive to the same diffusible factors present in the CSF. The result of these interactions could have similar effects on the behavior of BTSCs, as it does on normal NSCs, such as the enhancement of BTSCs to self-renew and generate lineage-specific tumor cells (including the ability to generate endothelial cells) resulting in the aberrant expansion and invasiveness of a highly heterogeneous brain tumor.