Ultrastructural pathology of the adrenal gland in Cushing's syndrome

Abstract

Authors studied the ultrastructural pathology of Cushing's syndrome. Some specific features correlated with the pathological aspects of the adrenals could be found. In the hyperplastic adrenal cortex the cytoplasm contains a rich smooth endoplasmic reticulum and numerous mitochondria. Increased lipid-pigment complexes were also found. The clear cell adenomas showed large lipid vacuoles. In the compact cell adenomas the mitochondria are of variable size and the smooth endoplasmic reticulum is well developed; the pigment bodies are frequent. The nuclei and especially the nucleoli are increased in size. In the adrenal carcinoma the nuclear and nucleolar alterations are still more evident. A marked pleomorphism of mitochondria was noticed. The behaviour of the steroidogenic activity in both tumoral and hyperplastic adrenal glands can be assessed using the ultrastructural picture of the agranular endoplasmic reticulum and of the mitochondria as functional parameters.