Recently, the research team led by Professor Juling Ji from the School of Medcine published a research paper titled "Reduction of alternative polarization of macrophages by short-term activated hepatic stellate cell-derived small extracellular vesicles" in the internationally renowned academic journal Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research (J Exp Clin Cancer Res). This study expands the understanding of the role of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in the liver immune microenvironment and provides a new theoretical foundation for developing effective strategies for early prevention and treatment of fibrosis-related hepatocellular carcinoma. Building on their previous discovery (where the team reported that activated HSCs promote hepatocellular carcinoma progression by inducing M2 polarization of monocytes), this work marks another significant breakthrough in the investigation of HSCs and the liver immune microenvironment.

The School of Medcineof Nantong University is the first and corresponding affiliation for this research.