INTESTINAL DEVELOPMENT IN INSULINOMA CONTAINING PSAMMOMA BODIES - RECAPITULATION OF ULTRASTRUCTURAL FEATURES

  • 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 104  (8) , 432-437
Abstract
Extensive junctional complex formation was observed between cells of an insulinoma with an acinar pattern [in a human]. Cytolysosomes, multivesicular bodies and small vesicles were present in the luminal aspect of acinar cells that were shedding cytoplasm. These and other ultrastructural features suggest a recapitulation of intestinal development by this tumor and this is consistent with an endodermal origin of pancreatic .beta.-cells or their precursors. Psammoma body formation, a rare occurrence in apudomas, was probably due to the accumulation of intraluminal cytoplasmic debris.