ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC INVESTIGATION OF AN EXTRAMAMMARY PAGET DISEASE

In one case of extramammary Paget's disease electronmicroscopic examination of the epidermis disclosed the following: 1. Cells with distinct structural deviation from the norm may be seen in the lower epidermis. These contain tonofilaments which are diminished, arranged like stubble or loosened only in a rudimentary way, generelly enclosed in an edematose cytoplasma. Endoplasmatic reticulum and Golgi-apparatus are extensive, swollen mitochondria slighthly increased. There are few near normal, at times rudimentarily structured desmosomes. 2. Alongside such cells there are others, similar in principle, but with lesser deviations of the tonofilaments. 3. Between these cells there are cell mitosis which similarly changed tonofilaments and structurally normal desmosomes. 4. The epidermal cells lying above these, in the upper Malpighilayer, show more or less the same tonofilament structure, but the number of tonofilaments is generally substantially increased. 5. The Processes of differentiation in the granular and horn layers seem to differ from the norm. Especially there are distinct indentations of the cell nucleus and stronger lysosomal reaction. 6. On the basis of these findings the altered cells in the lower epidermis, which may differentiate upwards, seem to correspond to artificially ballooning Paget cells". © 1969 Springer-Verlag."