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REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Cell Signaling
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1454546
Cancer-associated fibroblasts: multidimensional players in liver cancer
Provisionally accepted- 1 First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
- 2 School of Medicine, Graduate School, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), as the most abundant stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) have been known to control tumor growth through producing and organizing the extracellular matrix (ECM) for a long time. However, the results from different studies focused on targeting CAFs to disturb tumor progression are extremely controversial. Recent studies using advanced single-cell RNA sequencing technology (scRNAseq) combined with multiple genetically engineered mouse models identify diverse CAF subpopulations in the premalignant liver microenvironment (PME) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and TME of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), providing a deep understanding of the exact roles of each CAF subpopulation in cancer development. This review focuses on the specific protein markers, signaling pathways, and functions of various emerging CAF subclusters contributing towards the development of ICC and HCC. Elucidating the role and regulation of CAF subpopulations under different pathophysiological conditions will facilitate the discovery of new therapeutics centered on modulating CAF activity.
Keywords: Cancer-associated fibroblast, iCAF, myCAF, Hepatocellular Carcinoma, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, Tumor Microenvironment
Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 19 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pan, Qiu, Zhou, Mao and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaoming Xu, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.