THBS1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: M1 macrophages secrete angiostatic factor thrombospondin-1(TSP1) (Yang et al., 2019; Kumar et al., 2020) for inhibiting angiogenesis by interacting with an endothelial cell receptor CD36 in various cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (Aburima et al., 2021).