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. 2021 Jan 10;13(3):3386–3404. doi: 10.18632/aging.202264

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Copyright: © 2021 Xiong et al.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Schematic representation of the mechanistic role of TAMs in PDAC progression. In the tumor microenvironment, TAMs secrete TGF-β, which binds to the TGF-β receptors on the surface of PDAC cells and activates the TGF-β signaling pathway. This includes translocation of phosphorylated Smad2/3 (transcription factor) into the nucleus from the cytoplasm. The phospho-Smad2/3/4 complex upregulates Snail, a key transcriptional factor required for the expression of EMT-related genes. Subsequently, EMT promotes metastasis of PDAC cells.