Effects of pericytes and colon cancer stem cells in the tumor microenvironment

Interaction pericytes and cancer stem cells. Tumorigenesis activates EMT-promoting transcription factors (TWIST, SNAIL and ZEB) through pathways known to play critical as WNT, NOTCH, TGF-β and NF-κB cascades and hypoxia. Cancer stem cells were recently found to function as pericyte progenitors thus reciprocal interaction between pericytes and CSC is highly beneficial to tumor development, contributing to tumor angiogenesis and metastasi