The ultrastructure of myxofibrosarcoma

Summary

An ultrastructural study of 11 myxofibrosarcomas is presented. The tumours were graded light-microscopically on a four-point scale according to cellularity, cell atypia and mitotic activity, as described in a previous paper: 3 were grade I, 2 grade II, 4 grade III and 2 grade IV.

Fibroblast-like and myofibroblast-like cells predominated in the grade I and II tumours, while histiocyte-like cells were relatively few; in grade III and IV tumours histiocyte-like cells predominated. The fibroblast-like cells were spindle-shaped with fairly smoothly outlined nuclei, and contained abundant parallel membranes and wide cisternae of endoplasmic reticulum. The histocyte-like cells were irregular in shape and showed indented nuclei with large nucleoli and coarse, peripherally arranged clumps of heterochromatin. The cytoplasm of these cells showed prominent pseudopodiae, microvillous projections, conspicuous systems of vesicles and vacuoles, inclusions of lipid and pigment, numerous lysosomal structures and large digestive vacuoles indicating auto- and exophagocytosis. The myofibroblast-like cells showed abundance of parallelly arranged cytoplasmic microfilaments with dense body-like structures and condensation at the plasmic membrane. Occasional cells appeared to be intermediate forms and primitive looking, undifferentiated cells were also encountered. A few multinucleated tumours cells were seen in the grade IV tumours. Thus, the present study shows the composite fibroblastic, myofibroblastic and histiocytic character of the tumour cells of myxofibrosarcoma; the grade III and IV tumours, with a tendency to contain solid areas, seem to be closely related to the pleomorphic type of malignant fibrous histiocytoma.