Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Apr 27, 2024; 16(4): 537-549
Published online Apr 27, 2024. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v16.i4.537
Multifaceted roles of lymphatic and blood endothelial cells in the tumor microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma: A comprehensive review
Jing-Jing Li, Jia-Xi Mao, Han-Xiang Zhong, Yuan-Yu Zhao, Fei Teng, Xin-Yi Lu, Li-Ye Zhu, Yang Gao, Hong Fu, Wen-Yuan Guo
Jing-Jing Li, Jia-Xi Mao, Han-Xiang Zhong, Yuan-Yu Zhao, Fei Teng, Xin-Yi Lu, Li-Ye Zhu, Yang Gao, Hong Fu, Wen-Yuan Guo, Department of Liver Surgery and Organ Transplantation, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200003, China
Co-first authors: Jing-Jing Li and Jia-Xi Mao.
Co-corresponding authors: Wen-Yuan Guo and Fei Teng.
Author contributions: Li JJ and Mao JX contributed equally to this work as co-first authors, and were responsibility for designing and writing the manuscript; Guo WY and Teng F acted as co-corresponding authors who contributed equally to this work, and participated in revising and finalizing the manuscript; Zhao YY, Lu XY and Gao Y prepared the figures; Fu H and Zhu LY provided data support.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81702923, and No. 81971503; Open Project of State Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology, No. NKLMI2023K03; Shanghai Shen Kang Hospital Development Center Clinical Science and Technology Innovation Project, No. SHDC12020104; and Basic Medical Research Project of Naval Medical University, No. 2022QN072.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declared that there is no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wen-Yuan Guo, MD, Adjunct Professor, Department of Liver Surgery and Organ Transplantation, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, Naval Medical University, No. 415 Fengyang Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200003, China. guowenyuan@smmu.edu.cn
Received: December 10, 2023
Peer-review started: December 10, 2023
First decision: December 15, 2023
Revised: January 11, 2024
Accepted: March 18, 2024
Article in press: March 18, 2024
Published online: April 27, 2024
Core Tip

Core Tip: Lymphatic and blood endothelial cells are important components of stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment. Besides their essential function in the formation of tumor draining blood and lymphatic vessels, they can activate various signaling pathways to promote tumor development and metastasis. This review discusses lymphangiogenesis and angiogenesis, and summarizes the current knowledge on common markers of lymphatic and blood endothelial cells and their roles in tumor metastasis, particularly in hepatocellular carcinoma. Based on the available evidence, researchers are attempting to discover new targeted therapies for the prevention of tumor progression.