Glucose transporter 1-positive endothelial cells in infantile hemangioma exhibit features of facultative stem cells.

ABSTRACT: Endothelial glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) is a definitive and diagnostic marker for infantile hemangioma (IH), a vascular tumor of infancy. To date, GLUT1-positive endothelial cells in IH have not been quantified nor directly isolated and studied. We isolated GLUT1-positive and GLUT1-negative endothelial cells from IH specimens and characterized their proliferation, differentiation, and response to propranolol, a first-line therapy for IH, and to rapamycin, an mTOR pathway inhibitor used to treat an increasingly wide array of proliferative disorders. Although freshly isolated GLUT1-positive cells, selected using anti-GLUT1 magnetic beads, expressed endothelial markers CD31, VE-Cadherin, and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2, they converted to a mesenchymal phenotype after 3 wee

SUBMITTER: Huang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4270824 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature