AKT1 and cancer: As shown in Fig. 5a–c (original blots are presented in Supplementary Fig. 5a–c), collagen type I is sufficient to induce the activation of AKT, a signaling molecule that plays critical roles in cancer cell growth and survival31; this activation, as evidenced by the phosphorylation of AKT at serine 473, is inhibited in ITGA2 stably silencing iCCA cells.