USP12 and neoplasm: Since the chemokine affected by USP12, such as CXCL8 and CXCL1, and the other macrophage-related factors, are involved in tumour angiogenesis23, we evaluated the proportion of CD31+ cells in LLC tumours, and observed an increase in the subpopulation in tumours with USP12-knockdown (Fig. 5d).