Figure 2.

Vascular compartment. Glioma CSCs and endothelial cells interaction in the perivascular niche. Brain CSCs are located within a vascular niche interacting with the surrounded cells. The perivascular niche is critical to maintaining the CSC phenotype. The secretion of growth factor by endothelial, ECM, and hypoxic conditions preserves stem-like characteristic accelerating tumor growth. Hypoxic glioma niche. Decreased oxygen tension triggers the expression of HIF-related genes, which in turn increases the production of several factors such as VEGF, decreasing the T_H1 CD4⁺ cells, and increasing T regulatory cells, macrophage polarization, immunosuppressive profile, and glioma CSC proliferation. Created with BioRender.com.