In addition, the CMCAFs co-cultured with GBC cells induced an increase of the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity, an important marker of cancer stemness, in NOZ and GBC-SD cells, while ALDH activity was partly inhibited upon in GBC cells treated with CMCAFs-shTSP-4 (Fig. 2d and Additional file 4: Fig. S1E). Here, LDHA is linked to cancer.