Morphology of nasopharyngeal angiofibroma. An electron microscope study

Abstract

Three cases of nasopharyngeal angiofibroma were submitted for ultrastructural analysis. All had three main components: cells comprising the microvasculature, fibroblastic (stromal) cells of varying but distinctive morphology, and inflammatory cells. Nuclei of fibroblastic cells that contained dense intranuclear bodies also had a heretofore undescribed prominent fibrous lamina apposed to the inner nuclear envelope. Fibroblastic cells not having intranuclear dense granules also did not have a prominent dense, fibrous lamina (DFL). Thus there appear to be two populations of fibroblastic cells, separable by distinctive nuclear morphology, which together comprise the stromal element of this tumor. The use of Osmium Ferrocyanide as a secondary fixation agent aids considerably in visualization of the intranuclear DFL. This fixation procedure is compared to results obtained using more conventional fixation protocols used in diagnostic electron microscopy.