[Study of uveal malignant melanoma with the electron microscope (author's transl)]

Abstract

Twelve cases of uveal malignant melanoma, including the principal histologic types of this neoplasm according to Callender, were studied with the electron microscope. Nuclear inclusions were observed in each case, more frequently in epithelioid cells: they were probably correlated with nuclear hyperactivity. Melanogenesis in neoplastic cells was sometimes abnormal because of the granular structure of the premelanosomes, of the difference in size and in shape melanosomes, of the difference in size and in shape of the pigment granules and of the different stage of evolution of the premelanosomes in the cell. The size and the degree of reticulation of nucleoli and the number of free ribosomes and mitochondria increased from spindle A, to spindle B and epithelioid cells. This behaviour probably depends on an increasing metabolic activity which is related to the increasing degree of malignancy.