Histochemically Demonstrable Carbohydrates of Appendageal Tumors of the Skin: I. Benign Eccrine Gland Tumors

Abstract

In the preceding publications in this series we have discussed the use of the Alcian Blue technic for the histochemical demonstration of acid substances in human skin (1), the correlation between results of comparison of Alcian Blue (AB) staining and the periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) reaction (2), the results of the application of these two technics to sections of normal human skin (3), and to tumors of ecerine gland origin (4), as well as to basal cell epitheliomas (5). It has been shown that these technies are useful for the demonstration of carbohydrate substances in tissue sections. They have the advantage over other histologic technic for carbohydrates in that they are relatively simple and give highly reproducible results. Furthermore, their actual chemistry is reasonably well known, in contrast to many other commonly used teehnies. To summarize, the PAS reaction is known to stain all substances containing 1—2 glycol linkages (in the main, hexoses), as well as related substituted amines, and possibly certain unsaturated lipids. Two color reactions appear in histologic sections, magenta and red (2). With the significant exception of glycogen, those substances stained magenta by PAS are positive to AB, while those substances stained red by PAS are AB negative. It is our opinion that the former are possibly made up of certain acid mueopolysaccharides and acidic mucoproteins, while the latter consist in large part of neutral mueopolysaccharides, neutral mucoproteins, and glycoproteins. On the other hand, many acidic substances, such as nuclear DNA, as well as certain acid mucopolysaccbarides, are AB positive but PAS negative.