Hemangioma Endothelial Cells and Hemangioma Stem Cells in Infantile Hemangioma

Hemangioma is one of the most common benign tumors in infants and young children. The 2 most important cells in the course of infantile hemangioma (IH) are hemangioma stem cells (HemSCs) and hemangioma endothelial cells (HemECs). Infantile hemangioma is characterized by massive proliferation of HemECs, but current studies indicate that HemSCs play an important role in pathogenesis of IH.

This review aimed to identify molecules that influence HemSC differentiation and HemEC proliferation and apoptosis to help clarify the pathogenesis of IH and provide novel drug targets for the treatment of IH.

Relevant basic science studies related to IH were identified by searching Google Scholar, Embase, PubMed, MEDLINE, and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Hemangioma stem cells can differentiate into HemECs, pericytes, and adipocytes. In the proliferating phase of IH, HemSCs mainly differentiate into HemECs and pericytes to promote angiogenesis. In the regressive phase, they mainly differentiate into adipocytes. Therefore, increasing the proportion of HemSCs differentiating into adipocytes, inhibiting the proliferation of HemECs, and promoting the apoptosis of HemECs can facilitate the regression of IH.