Road to stemness in hepatocellular carcinoma

Figure 2 Stimuli that trigger the gain of stemness of non-cancer stem cells in hepatocellular carcinoma. The diagram includes the conditions that are reported to induce stemness: epigenetics (histone modifications, DNA methylation, Chromatin remodeling and miRNA regulation); microenvironment that includes hypoxia, inflammation and cellular populations participation (MF, nF, CAF, lymphocytes, CSC and non-CSC, ECM, EC); epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) and chemotherapy (QX: chemotherapy insult, i.e. carboplatin, curcumina and cisplatin). MF: Miofibroblast; nF: Normal fibroblast; CAF: Cancer associated fibroblast; CSC: Cancer stem cell; ECM: Extracellular matrix; EC: Endothelial cells.