Elastofibroma: An Electron Microscopic Study

Summary

An electron microscopic study was made of a benign connective tissue tumor, elastofibroma, characterized in light microscopy by “fibers, globes, and irregular masses” which take the elastic tissue stains. These masses were found by electron microscopy to consist of degenerating fibrils, often surrounding an elastic fiber core which was removed by elastase digestion. A matrix material surrounding the degenerating fibrils was also removed by elastase digestion. This material may have represented an elastic staining component of the fibrillar masses and could account for the disappearance of elastic staining from elastase-digested paraffin sections in light microscopy.