A placental chorionic villous mesenchymal core cellular origin for infantile haemangioma.

Aims: To investigate the expression of the placental cell-specific associated proteins in infantile haemangioma (IH).

Methods: Immunohistochemical staining was used to investigate the expression of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), human placental lactogen (hPL), human leucocyte antigen-G (HLA-G), cytokeratin 7 (CK7) and smooth muscle actin in paraffin-embedded sections of proliferating and involuted IHs.

Results: The proteins hCG and hPL were expressed by the endothelium but not the pericyte layer of proliferating IH, but these proteins were not detected in involuted lesions.