Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. III. Ultrastructure of Different Growths Leading to Lymphoblastoid Transformation In Vitro 2

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The successive growths in culture of nasopharyngeal carcinoma biopsy specimens were investigated by electron microscopy until lymphoblastoid transformation. During early lymphocyte production, the cell population was heterogeneous, revealing some alterations of the nuclear membrane but no evidence of herpesvirus infection. In the Spongostan specimens, epithelial growths exhibiting fibroblastoid transformation were maintained up to 2 months. Lymphoid elements and both epithelial and fibroblastoid cells were regularly in close contact; and ultrastructural differences were observed between fibroblasts growing in Spongostan and those growing on the bottom of the tissue culture flasks. Whereas no fingerprint of herpesvirus infection was evident in the different growths before Iymphoblastoid transformation, we noted important nuclear alterations of fibroblasts in contact with Iymphoblastoid cells. We concluded that the Iymphoblastoid transformation might result from an unknown but strong antigenic stimulation of lymphocytes that were originally present in the biopsy specimens and closely associated with epithelial cells and, later, fibroblasts.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: