Endothelial cells in infantile haemangiomas originate from the child and not from the mother (a fluorescence in situ hybridization-based study).

Abstract

Infantile haemangiomas are benign vascular tumours of infancy of unknown origin. Their aetiological relationship to maternal cells has been questioned given that they develop during the neonatal period. As endothelial cells in the placenta may be of maternal or fetal origin, we questioned whether vascular haemangioma cells originated from fetal or maternal tissue. We aimed to detect, by using fluorescence in situ hybridization, maternal XX cells in the male XY tissue in four specimens of infantile haemangiomas obtained from boys. A sample of a female infantile haemangioma was used as a positive control and a male specimen of melanocytic naevus as a negative control. In one case of infantile haemangioma, a single XX female - probably maternal - cell was detected in the infantile haemangioma. All the other cells from this male as well as the three other informative specimens were uniformly negative for XX cell detection. Our results support the hypothesis that endothelial cells of infantile haemangiomas appear to derive from the child itself, in accordance with other studies.