Ultrastructure of chordoma. A case report.

A 50-year-old male developed a sacro-coccygeal chordoma. Prior to the surgery, he had experienced back-pain, numbness of the right thigh and difficulty in voiding and defecation. Total excision of the mass was done and all symptoms were relieved. The light microscopic examination revealed a chordoma. The ultrastructural study was performed with particular interest in physaliferous cells. The fine structure disclosed the prominent associations of mitochondria and rough endoplasmic reticulum. The mitochondria showed irregularities in sizes and shapes but did not attenuate as much as previously reported. The vacuoles that were observed by light microscopy in physaliferous cells were both extra-cellular and intra-cellular and contained finely granular material of acid mucopolysaccharides probably of chondroitin type. The presence of both subplasmalemmal linear densities (SLD) and pinocytic vesicles was consistent with the histogenetic conviction that the tumor arose from mesodermal derivatives.