Table 3.

Roles of ovarian cancer exosomes in pre-metastatic niche formation

Exosome Function	Origin of exosomes	Recipient cells	Effect	Potential targets	Ref.
Immunosuppression	Ascites of OC patients	T cells	Arrest T cells	GD3, TCR	[46]
	Ascites of OC patients	Monocytes	Cytokine production	TLR signaling pathways	[47]
	Ascites of OC patients	PBMCs and DCs	Apoptosis	FasL	[27]
	Ascites of OC patients	T cells	Apoptosis	FasL	[54]
	OC cells	T cells	Counterattack against activated T cells	LPA and FasL	[55]
	Ovarian tumor tissues	T cells	T cell inhibition	Depletion or blockade of PS	[56]
	EOC cells and ascites	NK cells	Cytotoxicity inhibition	NKG2D	[57]
Angiogenesis	OC cells	HUVECs	Affect VEGF or HIF-1α	ATF2 and MTA1	[58]
	OC cells	HUVECs	CD147 stimulates VEGF expression	CD147	[59]
	OC cells	HUVECs	Activate β-catenin and NF-κB signaling	sE-cad	[60]
Stroma remodeling	OC cells	ADSCs	Transition ADSCs to CAFs	α-SMA, SDF-1, TGF-β SMAD2 and PI3K/AKT pathway	[67]
	OC cells	Macrophages	Macrophage M2 polarization	miR-21–3p, miR-125b-5p, and miR-181d-5p SOCS4/5/ STAT3 pathway	[41]

Abbreviations: OC ovarian cancer, GD 3 ganglioside 3, TCR T-cell receptor, TLR Toll-like receptor, PBMCs peripheral blood lymphocytes, DCs dendritic cells, FasL Fas ligand, LPA Lysophosphatidic acid, PS phosphatidylserine, EOC Epithelial ovarian cancer, NK natural killer, HIF Hypoxia-inducible factor, HUVECs Human umbilical vein endothelial cells, sE-cad soluble E-cadherin, ADSCs adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells, α-SMA alpha-smooth muscle actin, SDF-1 stromal cell-derived factor 1, PI3K Phosphoinositide 3-kinases, AKT Protein kinase B, SOCS Suppress cytokine signaling, STAT3 Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3