Review Article

Role of the Endothelium during Tumor Cell Metastasis: Is the Endothelium a Barrier or a Promoter for Cell Invasion and Metastasis?

Figure 6

New role of the endothelium in the process of tumor cell invasion. (a) A human endothelial cell monolayer (e.g., HUVEC) cultured on top of a collagen fiber network-induced tumor cell invasion of cocultured human tumor cell lines. (b) The endothelium decreased the invasion of several invasive tumor cell lines (barrier for cell invasion), did not alter the invasion of tumor cells, or even enhanced tumor cell invasion into a collagen gel fiber matrix (enhancer for cell invasion).
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(a)
183516.fig.006b
(b)