ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Extracutaneous infantile haemangioma is also Glut1 positive

R M Drut, R Drut

Department of Pathology, Hospital de Niños "Superiora Sor María Ludovica", 1900, La Plata, Argentina

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr R M Drut
Department of Pathology, Hospital de Niños "Superiora Sor María Ludovica", 1900, La Plata, Argentina; patologi{at}netverk.com.ar

Aim: To investigate whether extracutaneous infantile haemangioma-like tumours are immunohistochemically similar to cutaneous infantile haemangiomas.

Methods: Mammary, salivary gland, liver (one each), and placental (two cases) capillary haemangiomas and typical examples of cutaneous (eight cases) infantile haemangioma were investigated immunohistochemically for  smooth muscle actin and Glut1, a proposed marker for the skin localised lesion. Positive internal controls included red blood cells, perineurium, trophoblast, and endothelial cells of the placental capillaries. Extralesional vessel endothelium acted as a negative control (except in the placenta). The liver haemangioma and both chorioangiomas presented in patients with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome.

Results: The endothelial cells of all the vascular lesions were Glut1 positive. These were consistently surrounded by a rim of  smooth muscle actin positive pericytic cells. Controls reacted appropriately.

Conclusions: All infantile haemangiomas were immunohistochemically positive for Glut1: expression of this molecule was not limited to infantile haemangiomas of the skin. These tumours comprise proliferations of both endothelial and pericytic cells. The association with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome may provide a clue to the molecular genetics of infantile haemangioma.

Abbreviations: IH, infantile haemangioma

Keywords: Glut1; chorioangioma; infantile haemangioma

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Quijano, G., Drut, R. (2007). Multiple congenital infantile hemangiomas of the lung in partial trisomy D. J. Clin. Pathol. 60: 943-945 [Full Text]  
• Drut, R., Altamirano, E. (2007). Endothelial Cells of Intramuscular (Infantile) Hemangioma Express Glut1. INT J SURG PATHOL 15: 166-168 [Abstract]