A case of mammary Paget's disease without an underlying carcinoma: microscopic analysis of the DNA content in Paget cells.
A 72-year-old woman had a 7-year history of a scaly red area on the right breast which had enlarged asymptomatically. A biopsy of the nipple was taken, and, following the finding of Paget's disease, a modified radical mastectomy was carried out. On histological examination of the entire breast specimen by serial sections, no evidence of an intraductal adenocarcinoma was found. Fractionation of Paget cells was performed from the epidermis. Stripped skin was treated with EDTA and trypsin, and epidermal cell suspensions were obtained. They were layered onto discontinuous Percoll gradients and centrifuged. Paget cells fell into three fractions with densities of 1.041, 1.058, and 1.078. Electronmicroscopically, the purity of fractionated cells obtained by this method ranged from 55 to 74% with viabilities of from 70 to 90%. Microscopic analysis of the DNA content in these cells was performed. The DNA histogram was close to the normal ploidy. This may explain why the mammary Paget's disease lesions in this case enlarged rather slowly.
Department of Dermatology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
O
O
Mori
H
H
Hachisuka
S
S
Nakano
Y
Y
Maeyama
Y
Y
Sasai
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D006801:Humans; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D010144:Paget's Disease, Mammary / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure
D004273:DNA, Neoplasm