Iron-induced atypical meningioma cells?

Polymorphous tumor cells with bizarre giant nuclei are characteristic of the so-called atypical meningioma. Some of these cells are iron-positive. Meningioma cells apparently are able to store iron excessively. It is discussed whether an extremely high intracellular iron uptake is responsible for atypical meningioma growth. Derangement of mitotic spindles may lead to polyploid chromosome sets and thereby to giant nuclei. This seems likely because induction of tumor growth after iron injection has been described. Spodographic examinations showed that even histologically inconspicuous tumor cells contain fine-grained iron. Application of the Prussian-blue reaction to spodograms reveals distinctly higher iron contents than common paraffin sections had proved.