Typing of pancreatic cancer-associated fibroblasts identifies different subpopulations

Figure 1 Simplified, schematic depiction of four stromal compartments in surgical specimens with pancreatic cancer. We defined two compartments within the tumour (the juxtatumoural and the peripheral stroma) and two compartments in the surrounding pancreatic parenchyma (the lobular and the septal stroma). The juxtatumoural stromal compartment, containing juxtatumoural cancer-associated fibroblasts and juxtatumoural extracellular matrix, is defined as the stroma at a distance of ≤ 100 μm away from the cancer cells. The peripheral stromal compartment, containing peripheral cancer-associated fibroblasts and peripheral extracellular matrix (p-ECM), is located > 100 μm away from the cancer cells. The lobular stromal compartment, containing lobular fibroblasts and lobular ECM, is defined as the stroma located in the intralobular areas, surrounding acinar cells and islets of Langerhans. The septal stromal compartment, containing septal fibroblasts and septal ECM, is defined as the stroma in the perilobular areas, surrounding the pancreatic lobuli. ECM: Extracellular matrix.