The fine structure of so-called minute pulmonary chemodectomas

Our plain-English summary of The fine structure of so-called minute pulmonary chemodectomas, by C. Kuhn, F.B. Askin (Human Pathology, 1975).

The study

• Authors: C. Kuhn, F.B. Askin
• Journal: Human Pathology
• Published: 1975;6(6):681-91
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 48 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Electron microscopy was performed on several minute tumors of the type called chemodectomas, all from the lung of a single patient. The cells had a whorling pattern with extensive interdigitating cytoplasmic processes joined by desmosomes. Except for tangles of cytoplasmic fibrils, the tumor cells had few distinctive organelles. They had no endocrine-like granules and were not associated with nerves or basement membranes. The tumors had little resemblance to paragangliomas, but displayed a puzzling similarity to meningiomas. Our observations permit no definite conclusions as to the histogenesis of these lung tumors. Viewed in the light of recent physiologic studies, they cast doubt on the presence of special chemoreceptive paraganglia in the lung.

In plain English

This 1975 article is not about asbestos. It is a pathology study of tiny lung growths called "minute pulmonary chemodectomas." The name reflects an earlier idea that they arise from chemoreceptor tissue, which senses blood chemistry. The growths were numerous gray-white nodules, up to 2 mm across, in a lung lobe removed from a 69-year-old woman. The authors examined them with light microscopy and, for four nodules, electron microscopy. They compared them with two paragangliomas, two mesotheliomas and one meningioma. The nodules always lay within the lung tissue between the air spaces, usually next to small veins, and never near an artery or bronchiole. Their cells had interlocking, jigsaw-like branching extensions joined by desmosomes (cell connections). No nerve fibers, neurosecretory-type granules or basement membranes were found. Of the comparison tumors, only the meningioma shared all of the nodules' features seen by electron microscopy, and the nodules lacked the usual features of mesotheliomas. The authors concluded that their findings did not clarify the growths' origin, but that the evidence did not point to special chemoreceptive tissue in the lung.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Case report with light and electron microscopy of multiple small lung nodules from one patient, compared with other tumor types
• Who was studied: One 69-year-old woman (described in the article as Negro) with mitral stenosis, whose removed right upper lung lobe contained numerous small nodules; four nodules were used for electron microscopy. Comparison tumors were two paragangliomas, two mesotheliomas (one diffuse papillary, one solitary fibrous) and one meningioma. Place: Barnes and Allied Hospitals, St. Louis, Missouri.
• Exposure: No asbestos or other exposure was studied or reported; the article describes the microscopic structure of the lung nodules.
• Main results:
  • The nodules in the patient's lung always lay within the lung tissue between the air spaces (the interstitium), usually next to small veins
  • In the lung nodules, the proliferating cells were never near an artery or bronchiole
  • By electron microscopy, cells of the lung nodules sent out branching extensions that interlocked extensively, like jigsaw pieces
  • Adjacent cells of the lung nodules were joined by typical desmosomes
  • No axons (nerve fibers) were identified in the lung nodules
  • Neurosecretory-type granules were not found in the lung nodule cells
  • Basement membranes were absent in the lung nodules, both between cells and between the supporting tissue and the cells
  • Of the comparison tumors, only the meningioma had all the electron-microscopic (ultrastructural) features of the lung nodules
  • The lung nodules did not have the usual microscopic or electron-microscopic features of mesotheliomas
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that their observations did not clarify where these lung growths originate, but that the available evidence did not point to special chemoreceptive tissue in the lung.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors noted that the lung nodules had first been fixed in formalin, but judged that the absence of granules was unlikely to be the result of poor fixation

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Fibril.

Related studies

• Histogenesis and fine structure of peritoneal tumors produced in animals by injections of asbestos — J.M. Davis (1974)
• So-called sclerosing hemangioma of the lung. Evidence for mesothelial origin — A.L. Katzenstein, D.L. Weise, et al. (1983)
• Case reports of primary pulmonary adenocarcinoma with pleural spread: so-called pseudomesotheliomatous adenocarcinoma — R. Saito, A. Kasajima, et al. (2012)
• Fine needle aspiration cytology of well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma: a case report — Y. Gong, R. Ren, et al. (2005)
• Fine structural changes in cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis and asbestosis — B. Corrin, A. Dewar, et al. (1985)
• Alternative activation of macrophages and pulmonary fibrosis are modulated by scavenger receptor, macrophage receptor with collagenous structure — S. Murthy, J.L. Larson-Casey, et al. (2015)

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