Reining-in Vessels

Birthmarks come in all shapes and sizes but they don’t all last forever. Take infantile hemangiomas, also known as strawberry marks. These are tumours made of tangled blood vessels beneath the skin. Occasionally they need to be treated with the drug propranolol. Researchers now demonstrate that propranolol also successfully treats some of the symptoms of a rare syndrome called HLTRS in which abnormal blood vessel growth can affect many organs and is caused by a mutation in the SOX18 gene. Using a mouse model of HLTRS, the team found that propranolol resolved the abnormal blood vessel growth in the cornea, as revealed by fluorescence microscopy of treated (pictured, right) and untreated eyes (left). Further tests showed a specific form of the drug, R-propranolol, acts specifically to reduce SOX18 activity. These insights highlight the importance of SOX18 in blood vessel tumours and the potential for R-propranolol in treating these and other vascular diseases.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image adapted from work by Jeroen Overman and Frank Fontaine, and colleagues
• Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and Vascular Biology Program, Department of Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, July 2019