Ultrastructural, cytochemical, and immunocytochemical study of nuclei and cytoskeleton of thyroid papillary carcinoma cells.

One of the most constant and typical histological markers of thyroid papillary carcinoma is the presence of multilobated and ground-glass nuclei. With the intention of extending and characterizing the ultrastructural comprehension of this feature, thyroid papillary carcinoma cells and normal follicular cells were studied using chromatin and ribonucleoprotein preferential staining techniques, as well as immunolabeling with antibodies against DNA, lamins, vimentin, and desmin. Carcinoma cells showed scant compact chromatin arranged in small masses. A special type of nuclear bodies with DNA immunoreactive fibrils was found in these cells. Some nucleoli were surrounded by a double fibrillar layer limiting a perinucleolar space occupied by RNP fibrogranular structures that differed from those of normal nuclei. Perichromatin granules were scarce compared to normal follicular cells. Immunoelectron microscopic studies of lamins showed diminished immunoreactivity in the nuclei of carcinoma cells. A perinuclear distribution of desmin and vimentin filament was found in tumor cells. The cytoplasm of normal follicular cells showed scarce immunoreactivity to vimentin and no immunolabeling for desmin. Both types of filaments attach to the nuclear pore complex and to other regions of the nuclear envelope. Contacts between labeled filaments and desmosomes or hemidesmosomes were frequent. The results show that in papillary thyroid carcinoma cells, changes in the distribution of chromatin and ribonucleoproteins, either alone or in conjunction with scarce lamin immunolabeling and perinuclear vimentin and desmin filamentous rings, may be responsible for the characteristic ground glass and multilobated nuclei.