Figure 1. Mechanism of distant metastasis using blood vessels as a migration route (IMAGE)
Caption
Usually, blood vessels are stabilized, and their barrier function is maintained by the tight adhesion between vascular endothelial cells (①). When cancer cells metastasize to distant organs via blood vessels, the morphology of vascular endothelial cells changes in response to the growth factors or cytokines secreted by the cancer cells. This results in the loss of adhesion between vascular endothelial, destabilization of the vessels and loss of their barrier function. These changes facilitate invasion, “intravasation" (②) of cancer cells into blood vessels and allow the cancer cells to travel through the body in the bloodstream. When cancer cells reach the distant organs, they migrate out of the blood vessels in a process called "extravasation" (③) by inducing vascular destabilization, followed by formation of distant metastatic sites.
Credit
Department of Biochemistry, TMDU
Usage Restrictions
None
License
Licensed content