AKT1 and neoplasm: Several studies have demonstrated that the diminished expression of VEGF and HIF-1α in U87 glioma cells led to a reduction in the vasculogenic mimicry (VM) lesions, whose overexpression correlates with tumour grade and poor prognosis in glioblastomas, together with a higher expression of Atg5 and pKDR/VEGFR-2, the latter also inducing the activation of the PIK3/AKT pathway in gliomas [132,133].