Ultrastructural aspects of pseudoxanthoma elasticum

• Autor(a) principal: Almeida Jr.,Hiram Larangeira de
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Almeida,Mariana Geber de, Jorge,Valéria Magalhães, Abreu,Luciana Boff de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Anais brasileiros de dermatologia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0365-05962017000400527
• topic: Elastic tissue; Microscopy, electron, scanning; Microscopy, electron, transmission

Abstract: We report the ultrastructural findings in a case of a 72-year-old black woman with confluent yellowish papules in the cervical region. She had no comorbidities. Ophthalmological examination, electrocardiogram, and echocardiogram were normal. Hematoxylin-eosin staining of the affected skin showed strong alterations in the mid-dermis with irregular clumps of eosinophilic material and loss of the normal parallel arrangement of collagen bundles. Orcein staining revealed that the elastic fibers lost their normal linear configuration, showing clump fragmentation, sometimes forming square structures. Transmission electron microscopy showed aberrant elastic fibers with an irregular outline and heterogenic inner structures. We also observed small elastic fibers. Collagen fibers showed a normal structure with irregular distribution. Scanning electron microscopy revealed important disorganization of collagen fibers and small stone-like deposits measuring around 5 µm associated with bigger structures ranging from 10-16 µm. Higher magnification revealed that these small stone-like structures were sometimes polyhedral-shaped or squared.