Microfilament-undercoated plasmalemmal infoldings in a human clear-cell sarcoma

Abstract

Unusual structures often found in the cytoplasm of tumor cells in a clear-cell sarcoma appeared as multilayered, concentric, oval, spiral, parallel arrays of cisternae in various planes of section. It was demonstrated that the cisternal membrane and cavity were continuous with plasmalemmas of tumor cells and the extracellular space, respectively, suggesting that the structures were formed by the intracytoplasmic infoldings of plasmalemmas. Another characteristic found in the structures was orderly microfilaments with an average diameter of 6.5 nm which were placed between the confronting plasmalemmas in the infoldings. The filaments which underlay the infolded plasmalemmas ran parallel to each other along the cytoplasmic surfaces of plasmalemmas approximately 15 nm apart. The regularly arranged filaments were found in the infolded plasmalemmas, but not beneath any other area of plasmalemmas. The short ends of long filaments appeared to bend toward the inner surfaces of plasmalemma and to be directly connected with the surface proper. These results show that the filaments may be closely associated with the plasmalemmal infoldings and included as the same category of plasmalemmal undercoat. Additionally, the biological significance of the structures is discussed.