J Korean Med Sci.  2000 Oct;15(5):516-520. 10.3346/jkms.2000.15.5.516.

Pale bodies in hepatocellular carcinoma

• Moon WS
• Yu HC
• Chung MJ
• Kang MJ
• Lee DG

• KMID: 965872
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2000.15.5.516

Abstract

Histochemical, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies were performed on cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with pale bodies (PB). HCC containing PBs was observed in 3 (5.5%) of 55 consecutively resected HCC cases. Histologically, a large number of hepatocytes displayed pale or eosinophilic staining of the cytoplasm, resulting in ground-glass appearance. They were aggregated in nodular pattern, or diffusely intermixed with other malignant hepatocytes. PBs were negative for periodic-acid Schiff and Masson's trichrome staining. The inclusions showed a strong positive reaction for fibrinogen and some of them were weakly positive for albumin but negative for hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis B core antigen, alpha-fetoprotein and alpha-1-antitrypsin. Ultrastructurally, PBs were membrane-bound and contained granular materials of moderate electron density, and were closely related to dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum. These findings support that PBs are secretory fibrinogen accumulated in cystic ER and that such intracellular accumulation possibly reflects a defective transport of fibrinogen.

Keyword

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Fibrinogen

MeSH Terms

Albumins/analysis
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/pathology*
Cytoplasm/ultrastructure
Cytoplasm/pathology
Cytoplasm/chemistry
Endoplasmic Reticulum, Rough/ultrastructure
Endoplasmic Reticulum, Rough/pathology
Endoplasmic Reticulum, Rough/chemistry
Fibrinogen/analysis
Human
Inclusion Bodies/ultrastructure
Inclusion Bodies/pathology*
Inclusion Bodies/chemistry
Liver Neoplasms/pathology*
Male
Microscopy, Electron
Middle Age
Periodic Acid-Schiff Reaction