CD163 and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: To verify our conjecture, we induced THP-1 into M0 macrophages in vitro (Fig. 10c), M0 macrophages in a separate group as a negative control, and then established a co-culture system of HNSCC cells and M0 macrophages, knockdown of CERCAM gene expression levels in HNSCC by transfection experiments and compared to the si-NC group, then tested the expression levels of M2 macrophage marker genes (CD163, CD206, VSIG4), which represent the levels of induced polarization.