Skip to main content
. 2020 Mar 14;13:19. doi: 10.1186/s13045-020-00858-6

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

(1) Tumor microenvironment and VM: TAFs (tumor-associated fibroblasts) promote VM formation through secreting TGF-β and SDF-1, and TAMs (tumor-associated macrophages) promote VM formation by amplifying IL-6and TGF-β secretion. (2) The process of EMT participating in the VM formation: epithelial cells are transformed into mesenchymal phenotype cells by specific procedures, including reduction of expression of cell adhesion molecules (such as E-cadherin) and some upregulated proteins (such as VE-cadherin-biomarker of VM).