elastin and Breast-Diseases

An ultrastructural study on elastosis of human breast tumors was made with special attention to the periductal elastosis and the cell responsible for elastic fiber formation. The elastosis was found prominently in scirrhous type of duct carcinoma. In the area of mild periductal elastosis, the elastic fibers with many microfibrils and a tiny central elastin were seen around the periductal fibroblasts which were characterized by attenuated cytoplasms with aggregates of microfilaments and slightly developed rough endoplasmic reticulum. With the thickening of the periductal wall, such an area was replaced by abundant mature elastic fibers with peripheral microfibrils and a few intervening ordinary fibroblasts. Therefore, it was suggested that the periductal fibroblasts which transformed into ordinary fibroblasts during the development of elastosis were primarily concerned with the elastic fiber formation. In the interlobular tissue in which both fibroblasts and myofibroblasts were present, the elastic fibers were larger than those of the periductal area and had less microfibrils in their periphery. The relationship between microfibrils and elastin during the early elastosis, maturation process of the elastic fibers, and cell modulation of the fibroblasts in the breast elastosis were discussed.

Topics: Adenofibroma; Adult; Breast; Breast Diseases; Breast Neoplasms; Carcinoma; Elastic Tissue; Elastin; Female; Fibroblasts; Histocytochemistry; Humans; Middle Aged

Immunohistological localisation of elastin was achieved by means of the peroxidase-antiperoxidase method after preliminary trypsinisation of sections from 48 benign breast biopsies. The procedure allows retrospective examination of routinely formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded breast tissue. In general the immunolocalisation of elastin showed a close microanatomical correlation with the fibres demonstrable in sections from the same blocks by standard elastic-fibre stains. Discrepancies between elastic-fibre stains and elastin immunoreactivity appear to relate to the enhanced avidity of the antibody for immature elastin. In this way sites of recent synthesis of elastin were demonstrated in the inner zone of the periductal elastica, sclerosing adenosis, and in the internal elastic lamina of breast arteries which displayed reduplication of the internal elastic lamina or intimal proliferation.

Topics: Breast Diseases; Elastin; Histocytochemistry; Humans; Immunoenzyme Techniques