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Multifaceted Tumor Stromal Fibroblasts

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Cancer Microenvironment

Abstract

Tumors are highly complex tissues composed of neoplastic cells and different kinds of stromal cells. Tumor stromal cells, especially fibroblasts, play important roles during the multistep development of tumors. In this review, the two-faced characteristics of tumor stromal fibroblasts are discussed in the light of our current knowledge. For one thing, fibroblasts act as an “inflammation regulator” by secretion of cytokines and regulation of tumor immunity; for another, they act as a “damage healer” for cure of wounds by remodeling extracellular matrix or taking a part in the “foreign body reaction”. Since the properties of fibroblasts are complicated, both aspects of fibroblasts for tumor development should be considered carefully in clinical studies to target cancer-associated fibroblasts.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81030049 and 31071261), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012CB917103). And we thank Jingjing Deng and Chen Ni for critical reading and helpful discussion.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Protein and Peptide Pharmaceuticals, Institute of Biophysics, Beijing, China

    Jie Li, Lin Chen & Zhihai Qin

  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences-University of Tokyo Joint Laboratory of Structural Virology and Immunology, Institute of Biophysics, Beijing, China

    Jie Li, Lin Chen & Zhihai Qin

  3. Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jie Li & Lin Chen

  4. Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 15 Datun Road, Beijing, 100101, China

    Zhihai Qin

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Li, J., Chen, L. & Qin, Z. Multifaceted Tumor Stromal Fibroblasts. Cancer Microenvironment 5, 187–193 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12307-012-0109-8

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