CCN2 and neoplasm: CTGF exerts proangiogenic activity and interacts with other proangiogenic proteins via several mechanisms to regulate angiogenesis [27], and has also been reported to promote tumor angiogenesis [43, 44] Liu et al. [45] suggested that CTGF significantly increased angiogenesis regulated by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in human synovial fibroblasts.