Abstract 18

Abstract

Background: Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) are thought to originate from hemangioma stem cells (HemSC), though IH pathogenesis is poorly understood. Our recent work showed that NOTCH3 is highly expressed in HemSCs and may play a role in IH progression. In cultured HemSCs, NOTCH3 knockdown perturbed adipogenesis and enhanced endothelial cell differentiation. Using a murine model of IH, we compared the development of IHs from control HemSCs (HemSC-scr) to HemSCs with Notch3 shRNA (HemSC-shN3).