Tactile corpuscle-like bodies in large bowel mucosa – An unusual but harmless incidentaloma

Abstract

Tactile corpuscle-like bodies (TCLB) are lesions that morphologically resemble Wagner-Meissner corpuscles occurring in sites where these mechanoreceptors are normally absent.1 They are rare, but have been described in multiple sites, either in isolation or as a component of other neurally-derived lesions.1 It has been suggested that they may represent a reactive neural proliferation.1 It is important to distinguish TCLB from granulomata, amyloid or other lesions of neural origin, such as ganglioneuroma, as they have no known syndromic associations or clinical sequelae.1 We present a case of TCLB occurring in the sigmoid colon. A 57-year-old female with ulcerative colitis of twelve years duration was found to have a long-standing scarred-looking area of the sigmoid colon with a slightly undulant architecture. Biopsies from this area showed multiple lesions in the lamina propria and one submucosal lesion. The lesional cells had bland, eccentric, spindled nuclei partly encircling lamellated and fibrillary-looking eosinophilic cytoplasm. Immunohistochemistry showed strong, diffuse staining with S100 and SOX-10, weak non-specific staining with CD56, and no staining with EMA, CD163, synaptophysin, Claudin 1, NeuN, NFP, ERG, SMA, CD117 and Glut 1. The morphological and immunohistochemical features were of tactile corpuscle-like bodies. Reference1.Huber AR, Agostini-Vulaj D, Drage MG, et al. Tactile corpuscle-like bodies (Wagner-Meissner corpuscles) of the colorectum: a series of 5 cases. Int J Surg Pathol 2017; 25: 684–7.