Electron Microscopy of Sclerosing Adenosis and Infiltrating Duct Carcinoma of the Human Mammary Gland2

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Abstract
Sclerosing adenosis, a benign proliferative disease of the human breast, was compared with infiltrating duct carcinoma by electron microscopy. In sclerosing adenosis, the epithelial cells and cell groups possessed intact basement membranes, evidences of secretory activity, well-formed mitochondria, and various differentiations of the cell surfaces, such as microvilli, desmo-somes, and terminal bars. In these features, the epithelial cells of sclerosing adenosis closely resembled the cells of the normal mammary gland of humans and rodents. Infiltrating duct carcinoma cells, on the other hand, lacked intact basement membranes and had fewer of the other structural refinements. Large accumulations of fine cytoplasmic fibrillae and occasional intracytoplasmic lumens were characteristic of many carcinoma cells. These two features were not found in the cells of sclerosing adenosis.