HIF1A and neoplasm: Evidence shows that increased stiffness promotes the expression of tumor angiogenesis-related factors (hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha(HIF-1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)), tumorigenesis-related matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), as well as metastasis and invasion-related markers such as ALDH and CD133 (Lin et al., 2023; Jiang et al., 2019).