Oral hairy leukoplakia: ultrastructural features

Abstract

Ten instances of a white plaque of the lateral tongue unique to homosexual males and referred to as oral hairy leukoplakia were analysed ultrastructurally. The surface epithelial layer exhibited extracellular, intracellular and intranuclear penetration by hyphae of Candida albicans, sometimes accompanied by coccobacilli in the extracellular space. The subcorneal epithelial layer included koilocytoid ballooned cells which had a paucity of cytoplasmic organelles and displayed condensation and emargination of the chromatin. Cells that exhibited these nuclear changes were found to be infected by a herpes-type virus which was visualized by electron microscopy in all ten cases. Clusters of nucleocapsids (86-110 nm in diameter) occurred in the nuclei and enveloped virions (111-175 nm in diameter) occurred in the cytoplasm and extracellular spaces. Virions showed budding from the nuclear envelope. Bundles of tubular structures (20 nm diameter) arranged in parallel occurred in the cytoplasm of some koilocytoid cells. There was no evidence by electron microscopy of the presence of papilloma virus within koilocytotic nuclei.