Purpose: To investigate the effect of propranolol on urine bFGF, MMP-2, MMP-9 expression of children with proliferative infantile hemangioma(IH), so as to clarify the mechanism of propranolol in treating IH.
Methods: From June 2018 to June 2019, thirty-four children with proliferative IH were treated with oral propranolol. In addition, twenty-one normal children (age <12 months) were chosen as the control group. 10 mL of sterile morning urine were collected before and 2 months after oral administration of propranolol in infants with IH. All blood samples were placed in ordinary disinfection test tubes, centrifuged at 1 000 r/min for 10 min, the supernatant of urine was collected and stored separately. The urine samples of normal control group were processed in the same way. The expression levels of bFGF in the urine of children with proliferative IH before and 2 months after oral administration of propranolol and in the normal control group were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The expression levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in the urine of children with proliferative IH before and 2 months after treatment and in the control group were detected by gelatin zymography. SPSS 22.0 software package was used to analyze the data.
Results: Two months after oral propranolol treatment, the concentration of bFGF in urine was significantly lower than that before treatment (P<0.01), but still significantly higher than that in the control group (P<0.05). The expression levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were significantly lower than those before treatment(P<0.01), but still higher than those in the control group (P<0.05).
Conclusions: One of the mechanisms of propranolol in the treatment of children with proliferative IH may be through inhibiting the expression levels of bFGF, MMP-2 and MMP-9, and then inhibiting the proliferation and angiogenesis of vascular endothelial cells in IH, so as to achieve the effect of treating hemangioma. The detection of the expression levels of bFGF, MMP-2 and MMP-9 in urine can be used as the index for oral propranolol treatment of children with proliferative IH.