炎症介质不仅在肿瘤的发生发展过程中起到了重要的作用,在肿瘤的血管生成方面也扮演着重要的角色。炎症反应的调节通路和肿瘤血管生成调节通路存在较大的重叠。研究证实,包括COX-2、IL-1、IL-6等在内的众多炎症介质不仅能够促进肿瘤血管生成,在肿瘤血管拟态形成及肿瘤干细胞向血管内皮细胞定向分化过程中可能也起到积极的促进作用。
Mediators of inflammation play a key role in tumor development and angiogenesis. The pathways controlling inflammation response share a lot common in that inducing tumor angiogenesis. It has been reported that inflammation mediators, such as COX-2, IL-1 and IL-6, can promote tumor angiogenesis. But they may also take the positive effect in formation of vascular mimicry and differentiation of cancer stem cells to vascular endothelial cell.