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Extracutaneous infantile haemangioma is also Glut1 positive
1Department of Pathology, Hospital de Niños "Superiora Sor María Ludovica", 1900, La Plata, Argentina. patologi@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 alpha 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 alpha 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.
