Role of tissue microenvironment resident adipocytes in colon cancer

Figure 3 Paracrine interactions between dysfunctional adipose tissue, colon cancer cells and normal epithelial cells. Dysfunctional adipose tissue induces recruitment of macrophages and lymphocytes creating a favourable microenvironment for tumour initiation and progression. We propose that dysfunctional adipocytes may induce epigenetic mutations in neighbouring epithelial cells. Adipocyte activation and recruitment signals from colon cancer cells are not known.