Stromal fibroblasts are cells in our body that provide support and structure to other cells and tissues. They play an important role in wound healing and maintaining the health of organs. Full definition
Periostin (POSTN) was identified by microarray RNA profiling studies as a stromal factor involved in maintaining the normal stem cell niche and demonstrated to be secreted by stromal fibroblasts, but not by infiltrating tumor cells (Malanchi et al., 2012). (elifesciences.org)
One possibility was that the drug affected stromal fibroblasts, cells that surround and support the tumour. (newscientist.com)
The key experiments included for replication were selected because they examine the induction of POSTN expression in the pulmonary stromal fibroblasts and test the role of POSTN in primary tumor formation and metastatic efficiency, which are relevant as the role of POSTN as a possible prognostic marker and target for anticancer therapies is explored (Xu et al., 2012; Nuzzo et al., 2014). (elifesciences.org)