Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Language

English

Publication Date

8-26-2025

Journal

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark

DOI

10.31083/FBL36559

PMID

40917046

Abstract

Adipose stromal cells (ASCs) are perivascular mesenchymal progenitors of adipose tissue. In cancer patients, ASCs can mobilize and migrate to the tumor, where they subsequently play an important role in cancer progression. This biological process involves the conversion of recruited ASCs into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). ASC-derived CAFs influence the tumor microenvironment through extracellular matrix remodeling, vascularization, and immunomodulation. These and other processes mediated by secreted paracrine factors also affect gene expression in carcinoma cells to promote the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), metabolic adaptation, survival, and invasiveness of cancer cells. ASC-derived CAFs can enhance tumor aggressiveness, accounting in part for the link between obesity and mortality observed in many cancer types that are surrounded by adipose tissue. In this review, we highlight recent findings on the characteristics and functions of ASCs in cancer and discuss their potential as therapeutic targets.

Keywords

Humans, Neoplasms, Tumor Microenvironment, Cell Differentiation, Adipose Tissue, Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition, Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts, Stromal Cells, Fibroblasts, Animals, Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Published Open-Access

yes

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