Table 1.

Mesenchymal stromal cells –special type of stromal cells in tumor microenvironment

Tumor type	Isolation technique	Morphology	Surface markers	Multilineage differentiation	Phenotype and Function	Reference
Gastric cancer	Tissue pieces (1-3 mm3) floating culture for 15 days	Long, spindle-shaped fibroblasts	Positive: CD13, CD29, CD44, CD105, HLA-I Negative: CD34, CD38, CD133, CD31, HLA-DR	Adipogenic differentiation (Oil Red O stain) Osteogenic differentiation (ALP stain)	–	Cao et al. [74]
Breast cancer	Monolayer Culture of single-cell suspension isolated from 0.1% type I collagenase-treated tumor tissues	Fibroblastic morphology	Positive: CD90, CD29, CD105, CD73, CD166 Negative: CD31, CD144, CD14, CD45, HLA-DR	Adipogenic differentiation (Oil Red O stain) Osteogenic differentiation (ALP and von Kossa stain) Chondrogenic differentiation (toluidine blue, Alcian blue, Safranin O and HE staining)	Phenotype: Myofibroblast Function: In vitro (enhance mammosphere formation) In vivo (promote growth)	Yan et al. [75]
Ovarian cancer	Monolayer Culture of single-cell suspension isolated from mechanically dissected and filtered tumor tissues or tissue pieces (4*4*2 mm) adherent culture	Fibroblastic morphology	Positive: CD105, CD73, CD90, CD44 Negative: CD14, CD45, CD34, CD133	Adipogenic differentiation (Oil Red O stain) Osteogenic differentiation (Alizarin Red S stain) Chondrogenic differentiation (Alcian Blue stain)	Function: In vitro (promote tumor cell stemness) In vivo (promote growth)	Mclean et al. [76]
Prostate Cancer	Monolayer Culture of single-cell suspension	Fibroblast-like	Positive: CD90, CD105, CD73 Negative: CD45, CD34, CD11b, CD19, HLA-DR	Adipogenic differentiation (Oil Red O stain) Osteogenic differentiation (Alizarin Red S stain) Chondrogenic differentiation (Safranin O stain)	Phenotype: Myofibroblast Function: In vivo (traffic to prostate cancer xenografts)	Brennen et al. [77]
HCC	Monolayer culture of a single-cell suspension isolated from 0.1% type I collagenase-treated tumor tissues	Fibroblastic morphology	Positive: CD29, CD73, CD166, CD90, CD105 Negative: CD45, CD14, CD144, CD31	Adipogenic differentiation (Oil Red O stain) Osteogenic differentiation (ALP and von Kossa stain)	Phenotype: Myofibroblast Function: In vitro (promote proliferation, tumor sphere formation, migration) In vivo (promote growth, metastasis)	Yan et al. [78]
Colon cancer	Monolayer culture of a single-cell suspension isolated from collagenase-digested tumor tissues for 12 days	Fibroblast-like morphology	Positive: CD166, CD13, CD44, CD14, Negative: CD133 CD45, CD34, CD31	Adipogenic differentiation (Oil Red O stain) Osteogenic differentiation (ALP stain)	Function: In vitro (promote proliferation, migration, invasion, tumor sphere formation) In vivo (promote growth, metastasis)	Lin et al. [79]
Glioma	Monolayer culture of a single-cell suspension isolated from mechanically dissected and filtered tumor tissues	Spindle-shaped morphology	Positive: CD105, CD73, CD90, Negative: CD45, CD34	Adipogenic differentiation (Oil Red O stain) Osteogenic differentiation (Alizarin Red S stain) Chondrogenic differentiation (Alcian Blue stain)	Function: In vitro (promote proliferation) In vivo (promote growth)	Hossain et al. [80]
Pancreatic cancer	Culture outgrowth method	Fibroblast-like morphology	Positive: CD90, CD49α, CD44, CD73	Adipogenic differentiation (Oil Red O stain) Osteogenic differentiation (Alizarin Red S stain) Chondrogenic differentiation (Alcian Blue stain)	Phenotype: Myofibroblast Function: In vitro (promote proliferation, invasion) In vivo (promote growth, metastasis)	Waghray et al. [81]