Infantile hemangioma is a common childhood tumor composed of disorganized blood vessels and immature endothelial cells. Hemangioma follows a unique life-cycle in which the tumor appears soon after birth and grows dramatically during infancy. This """"""""proliferating phase"""""""" is followed by a spontaneous but slow """"""""involuting phase"""""""" that begins after age one. By five to eight years of age, most hemangiomas have reached the """"""""involuted phase"""""""" at which point the tumor mass has been replaced by a fibrofatty residuum. Hence, infantile hemangioma is a human vascular anomaly from which we might gain important insight into how blood vessels are formed and how they regress. Our goal has been to find the cell that initiates growth and expansion of IH and to establish an animal model that closely reflects this human vascular tumor. Indeed, we have now isolated a multi-potent hemangioma stem cell (HemSC) from 30 different proliferating hemangioma specimens removed from infants with endangering hemangiomas, and demonstrated their robust self-renewal capacity, multi- lineage differentiation potential and ability to form hemangioma-like blood vessels in vivo in immunodeficient mice (Khan, Boscolo et al, J Clin Invest. 2008). In summary, this paper identifies the HemSC as the cellular origin of infantile hemangioma and provides the first animal model that truly reflects this vascular lesion. We had previously isolated and studied hemangioma-derived endothelial cells (HemECs) and hemangioma-derived endothelial progenitor cells (HemEPCs) but these cells do not form blood vessels when injected into immune-deficient mice, suggesting that the cells may be too differentiated to recapitulate infantile hemangioma. Our current goal is to further our studies on HemSC and HemEPCs/HemECs and how these cells interact to cause the aberrant vessel formation that occurs in infantile hemangioma. We will purse three specific aims. The first will focus on HemSC differentiation into pericytes and the potential influence of EPCs on hemangioma vessel development.
The second aim will focus on VEGF-R1 in HemSC differentiation into endothelial cells.
The third aim will be to screen FDA-approved drugs with anti-angiogenic activity for ability to inhibit HemSC growth in vitro and blood vessel formation in vivo using the models we have developed. These three aims represent cellular (Aim 1), molecular (Aim 2) and translational (Aim 3) approaches to advance our understanding of hemangioma and to identify potential drugs that will stop the growth and blood vessel formation that occurs in hemangima. Furthermore, this research may have relevance to other vascular anomalies, vascular tumors and tumor angiogenesis. Finally, because this research focuses on mechanisms leading to blood vessel formation, it may reveal insights into how human vascular progenitor cells can be used to rebuild vascular networks for tissue regeneration.

Public Health Relevance

This proposal will study stem cells isolated from a common childhood tumor known as infantile hemangioma. We hope to understand how and why these stem cells have become disrupted, such that instead of following a normal healthy pathway to become normal cells and tissue, the hemangioma-derived stem cells form a mass of disorganized blood vessels that grows dramatically during infancy. The results from this study may lead to new, fast-acting and safe treatments for children with endangering hemangiomas. In addition, the studies may provide fundamental insights into the behavior of human vascular progenitor cells which could then be applied to strategies to use such progenitor cells for tissue repair and regeneration, and specifically to build healthy vascular networks.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL096384-03
Application #
8034717
Study Section
Cardiovascular Differentiation and Development Study Section (CDD)
Program Officer
Schramm, Charlene A
Project Start
2009-04-01
Project End
2013-03-31
Budget Start
2011-04-01
Budget End
2012-03-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$432,500
Indirect Cost
Name
Children's Hospital Boston
Department
Type
DUNS #
076593722
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02115
Nowak-Sliwinska, Patrycja; Alitalo, Kari; Allen, Elizabeth et al. (2018) Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays. Angiogenesis 21:425-532
Ye, Xi; Abou-Rayyah, Yassir; Bischoff, Joyce et al. (2016) Altered ratios of pro- and anti-angiogenic VEGF-A variants and pericyte expression of DLL4 disrupt vascular maturation in infantile haemangioma. J Pathol 239:139-51
Ayturk, Ugur M; Couto, Javier A; Hann, Steven et al. (2016) Somatic Activating Mutations in GNAQ and GNA11 Are Associated with Congenital Hemangioma. Am J Hum Genet 98:789-95
Huang, Lan; Nakayama, Hironao; Klagsbrun, Michael et al. (2015) Glucose transporter 1-positive endothelial cells in infantile hemangioma exhibit features of facultative stem cells. Stem Cells 33:133-45
Jia, Di; Huang, Lan; Bischoff, Joyce et al. (2015) The endogenous zinc finger transcription factor, ZNF24, modulates the angiogenic potential of human microvascular endothelial cells. FASEB J 29:1371-82
Nakayama, Hironao; Huang, Lan; Kelly, Ryan P et al. (2015) Infantile hemangioma-derived stem cells and endothelial cells are inhibited by class 3 semaphorins. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 464:126-32
Smadja, David M; Levy, Marilyne; Huang, Lan et al. (2015) Treprostinil indirectly regulates endothelial colony forming cell angiogenic properties by increasing VEGF-A produced by mesenchymal stem cells. Thromb Haemost 114:735-47
Lee, D; Boscolo, E; Durham, J T et al. (2014) Propranolol targets the contractility of infantile haemangioma-derived pericytes. Br J Dermatol 171:1129-37
Smadja, David M; Dorfmüller, Peter; Guerin, Coralie L et al. (2014) Cooperation between human fibrocytes and endothelial colony-forming cells increases angiogenesis via the CXCR4 pathway. Thromb Haemost 112:1002-13
Gelfand, Maria V; Hagan, Nellwyn; Tata, Aleksandra et al. (2014) Neuropilin-1 functions as a VEGFR2 co-receptor to guide developmental angiogenesis independent of ligand binding. Elife 3:e03720

Showing the most recent 10 out of 23 publications