Figure 7: Stress-induced lymphatic remodelling.
From: Chronic stress in mice remodels lymph vasculature to promote tumour cell dissemination
Stress remodels lymphatic vasculature through a tumour neural-inflammatory axis to promote lymphogenous tumour cell dissemination and metastasis. Tumour cell-derived VEGFC is necessary for stress-enhanced lymphatic remodelling but is not directly activated by β-adrenoceptor signalling. Tumour-associated macrophages respond to β-adrenoceptor signalling to produce inflammatory molecules such as PGE2, which may then signal to tumour cells to produce VEGFC required for lymphatic remodelling. These effects may be clinically blocked using BBs, anti-VEGFC therapeutics (αVEGFC) or COX2 inhibitors (COX2i). E, epinephrine; NE, norepinephrine; β-AR, β-adrenoceptor.
