Infantile hemangiomas are non-malignant, largely cutaneous vascular tumors affecting approximately 10% of children to varying degrees. Little is known regarding aberrant signaling processes that underlie this benign tumor. To address this, we performed meta-analysis on a published whole genome microarray dataset comparing the transcriptional patterns of endothelial cells purified from normal skin and infantile hemangioma tumors. Bioinformatics network analysis statistically identified the most

more »

... ver represented cellular processes differentiating the two cell types, including major changes in cell adhesion and extracellular matrix degradation. From these network processes, we identified a core set of 29 genes including increases in the expression of COL5A1, COL5A2, COL4A6, and MMP2 and decreases in the expression of COL1A1, COL1A2, MMP1/13, and TIMP1, suggesting that infantile hemangioma endothelial cells exhibit altered adhesive properties via changes in the levels of collagens and their direct regulators.