lewis-y-antigen and Hemangioma

Juvenile hemangiomas are common, benign tumors, distinctive for their perinatal presentation, rapid growth during the first year of life, and subsequent involution. We recently reported that endothelia of hemangiomas highly express GLUT1, a glucose transporter normally restricted to endothelia with blood-tissue barrier function, as in brain and placenta.. To investigate possible further similarities between hemangioma and placental vessels.. In a retrospective study of a variety of vascular tumors and anomalies, we assessed lesional immunoreactivities for the placenta-associated vascular antigens FcgammaRII, Lewis Y antigen (LeY), merosin, and GLUT1.. A university-affiliated pediatric hospital.. Immunoreactivities scored for each antigen were summarized according to lesional type, compared with those of normal skin, brain, and placenta, and correlated with patient age, sex, and lesional location.. All of 66 hemangiomas (patients aged 22 days to 7 years) showed intense immunoreactivity for FcgammaRII, merosin, LeY, and GLUT1. No immunoreactivities for these markers were seen in any of 26 vascular malformations, 4 granulation tissue specimens, 13 pyogenic granulomas, or in the tumor vasculature of 6 malignant tumors of nonvascular origin. Microvascular immunoreactivity for all 4 markers was observed in placental chorionic villi, but was absent in microvessels of normal skin and subcutis. Brain microvessels expressed only GLUT1 and merosin.. A distinct constellation of tissue-specific markers is uniquely coexpressed by hemangiomas and placental microvessels. These findings imply a unique relationship between hemangioma and the placenta and suggest new hypotheses concerning the origin of these tumors.

Topics: Blood Vessels; Cerebrovascular Circulation; Child; Child, Preschool; Chorionic Villi; Female; Glucose Transporter Type 1; Hemangioma; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Laminin; Lewis Blood Group Antigens; Microcirculation; Monosaccharide Transport Proteins; Phenotype; Placenta; Pregnancy; Retrospective Studies

Infantile hemangiomas are common tumors, distinctive for their perinatal presentation, rapid growth during the first year of life, and subsequent involution-and for their expression of a unique immunophenotype shared by placental microvessels. Occasional "hemangiomas" differ from the classic form in presenting fully formed at birth, then following a static or rapidly involuting course. These congenitally fully developed lesions have generally been assumed to be clinical variants of more typical, postnatally developing hemangiomas. This assumption has not been tested by rigorous histologic and immunophenotypic comparisons.. To compare the histologic and immunohistochemical features of congenital nonprogressive hemangiomas with those of typical, postnatally proliferating, hemangiomas.. All cellular vascular tumors resected from infants younger than 4 months at Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, over the past 20 years (43 lesions from 36 patients) were first characterized histologically and immunohistochemically, then clinically by chart review.. A university-affiliated pediatric hospital.. Histologic appearance, immunoreactivity for the infantile hemangioma-associated antigens GLUT1 and LeY, and clinical behavior.. Congenital nonprogressive hemangiomas differed from postnatally proliferating infantile hemangiomas in histologic appearance and immunohistochemical profile. Distinguishing pathologic features of these tumors were lobules of capillaries set within densely fibrotic stroma containing hemosiderin deposits; focal lobular thrombosis and sclerosis; frequent association with multiple thin-walled vessels; absence of "intermingling" of the neovasculature with normal tissue elements; and lack of immunoreactivity for GLUT1 and LeY.. Congenital nonprogressive hemangiomas are histologically and immunophenotypically distinct from classically presenting hemangiomas of infancy, unlikely to be related to the latter in pathogenesis.

Topics: Female; Glucose Transporter Type 1; Hemangioma; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Lewis Blood Group Antigens; Male; Medical Records; Monosaccharide Transport Proteins; Retrospective Studies; Skin Neoplasms