Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Promote Vascular Invasion of Hepatocellular Carcinoma via Downregulating Decorin-integrin β1 Signaling.

ABSTRACT: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy worldwide, and the high ratio of recurrence and metastasis remains the main cause of its poor prognosis. Vascular invasion of HCC includes microvascular invasion (MVI) and portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT) and is regarded as a common roadmap of intrahepatic metastasis in HCC. However, the molecular mechanism underlying vascular invasion of HCC is largely unknown. Here, we analyzed the transcriptomes of primary tumors, PVTT tissues, and tumor tissues with or without MVI. We found that extracellular matrix-related pathways were involved in vascular invasion of HCC and that decorin secreted by cancer-associated fibroblasts was gradually downregulated from normal to tumor tissues and more so in PVTT tissues. We also established that low-l

SUBMITTER: Zheng X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8421641 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature