“…One study found that STAT3 was highly expressed in MBSCs and that its inhibition led to decreased self-renewal and tumor-initiating capacity of MBSCs [ 40 ]. The researchers also showed that STAT3 inhibition led to increased differentiation of MBSCs into non-tumorigenic cells [ 41 ]. Another study found that the cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), which is known to activate the STAT3 pathway, was highly expressed in MBSCs and showed that LIF promoted the self-renewal and survival of MBSCs through activation of the STAT3 pathway [ 42 ].…”