Is there a role for pericytic cells in the vascular bed of infantile hemangioendothelioma of the liver?

ABSTRACT

Electron microscopic examination of an infantile hemangioendothelioma (IHE) type I of the liver, appearing in a five month old child, showed a high density of pericytes in the walls of the neoplastic vessels. These vessels, in part of the IHE patients, establish an important arteriovenous shunt leading to high output, congestive cardiac failure. It is unclear whether functions ascribed to pericytes, such as participation in microvascular contractility or as suppressors of endothelial cell proliferation are involved in two noteworthy aspects of the present case. The child exhibited no congestive heart failure and the multiple nodular lesions underwent spontaneous regression.