Stem cells used to model infant birth defect
Haemangiomas - strawberry-like birthmarks that commonly develop in early infancy - are generally harmless, but up to 10 percent cause tissue distortion or destruction and sometimes obstruction of vision or breathing. Since the 1960s, problematic haemangiomas have been treated with corticosteroids such as dexamethasone or prednisone. But steroids have considerable side effects, don't always work, and their mechanism of action in haemangioma has remained a mystery. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston recently discovered that infantile haemangiomas originate from stem cells, and have used these stem cells to better understand this tumour in the laboratory. In the March 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, they show that steroids target haemangioma stem cells specifically, reveal their mechanism of their action and suggest other possible ways to halt and shrink haemangiomas...