MicroRNA profile of hepatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma: A case report

Abstract

A 72-year-old female was referred for further evaluation of epigastralgia. Abdominal contrast computed tomography revealed numerous tumors in the two lobes of the liver. Liver biopsy and immunohistochemical staining revealed that the tumor cells were positive for factor VIII-associated antigen, platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 and human hematopoietic progenitor cell antigen, concordant with a diagnosis of hepatic epithelioid heman- gioendothelioma (HEH). To elucidate the etiology of HEH, particularly the microRNA (miRNA) profiles, tissue samples obtained from normal and tumor tissues were analyzed using a miRNA array system. A total of 14miRNAs were signifi- cantly upregulated and 93miRNAs were downregulated in the tumor tissues (P<0.01). Additionally, unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis using Pearson's correlation revealed that the tumor tissues clustered separately from the normal tissues. The miRNA expression profile was analyzed in HEH and compared with angiosarcoma, which exhibits histology similar to HEH. Out of a total of 107miRNAs, only miR-122-5p and miR-1290 demonstrated a differential expres- sion pattern in angiosarcoma. Therefore, these miRNAs may be novel biological markers for the determination of a diag- nosis of HEH in primary mesenchymal tumors of the liver. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first report of a miRNA microarray analysis in HEH.