Fig. 4: The inflammatory cytokine tumor microenvironment promotes retrodifferentiation and cancer stemness maintenance in liver cancers.
From: Mechanism of cancer stemness maintenance in human liver cancer
The process of retrodifferentiation includes EMT and metabolic reprogramming of non-CSC cells. Additionally, activation of PKA can induce MET in CSCs and lead to the loss of tumor-initiating ability in CSCs. CSCs cancer stem cells, EMT epithelial–mesenchymal transition, MET mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition, CAFs cancer-associated fibroblasts, TANs tumor-associated neutrophils, TAMs tumor-associated macrophages, HSCs hepatic stellate cells, MDSCs myeloid-derived suppressor cells, PKA protein kinase A.
