肿瘤血管的生成在肿瘤转移中起着至关重要的作用。近几年来的研究发现,促红细胞生成素产生肝细胞受体(erythropoietinproducing hepatocellular receptor,Eph)及其配体Ephrin在胚胎早期血管重塑及血管生成中发挥重要作用,其双向信号的能够调节肿瘤细胞形态和功能,影响肿瘤血管生成,从而影响肿瘤的侵袭和转移,Eph和Ephrin的表达水平可以作为评估肿瘤的恶性程度及预测患者预后的指标。靶向Eph/Ephrin信号通路的治疗有望成为肿瘤治疗的一种新手段。
Tumor angiogenesis plays an important role in tumor metastasis. In recent years, many studies found that erythropoietinproducing hepatocellular(Eph) receptor and its ligand Ephrin plays an important role in vascular remodeling and angiogenesis in early embryonic stage. The bi-directional signaling of Eph/Ephrin can modulate the morphology and function of tumor cells, and influence the angiogenesis of tumor, thus affecting the invasion and metastasis of tumor cells. The expression levels of Eph and Ephrin can be used as biomarkers to assess the malignant degree of tumor and predict the prognosis of cancer patients, which make the Eph/Ephrin signaling pathway become a potential target for cancer treatment.