To the Editor: Ectopic skin-type adnexal structures, including sebaceous glands and hair follicles, are rare in the lower female genital tract, namely in the vagina and uterine cervix (1–6). The presence and histogenesis of these elements, derivatives of the ectoderm, in müllerian organs are unclear and intriguing. It has been speculated that they may be the result of congenital misplacement or may represent an acquired metaplastic change (1–6). In our report on a case of ectopic sebaceous gland in the vagina, we commented that in that case an entire sebaceous unit, that is, sebaceous gland and sebaceous duct, was present and there was a canal connecting sebocytes to the surface resembling that of an infundibulum and an isthmus (6). It is known that in a human embryo future sebaceous glands develop together with future hair follicle and apocrine glands, as a folliculosebaceous-apocrine unit (7). Thus, the association of ectopic elements with follicular structures (infundibulum as in the above mentioned case) would strongly argue against the metaplastic theory. Recently, Ackerman and Böer (8) reconsidered the normal histology of a hair follicle and suggested that the infundibulum is part of the epidermis, and not of a hair follicle. While reviewing the original histologic slides of a case of a 6-week-old girl with hair follicles in the endocervix published in 1972 by our colleague, Professor Linhartova (9), we noted a feature that was not addressed by the author, namely the presence of mantle structures around some follicles (Fig. 1). Professor Linhartova was not aware of this feature at the time of writing, as the concept of the mantle was fully elaborated years after her publication. Although described by Pinkus in 1987 as a rudimentary sebaceous gland termed “Mantlehaare” (German: hair cloaks), only recently was a mantle shown to represent a distinctive sebaceous structure related to the cycle of the sebaceous gland, different from that seen in hair follicles (7). Microscopically, a mantle appears on longitudinal sections of the skin sections as cords of epithelial cells emanating from both sides of a hair follicle at the junction between the infundibulum and the isthmus and then descending parallel with the follicle for a longer distance. In transversal sections, the cords encircle the hair follicle. These cords may display occasional sebocytes. Such an appearance of the mantle is seen before puberty and after menarche/andarche and is thought to result from a decreased level of androgens. At puberty, a mantle transforms to conventionally appearing sebaceous lobules with numerous mature sebocytes with vacuolated cytoplasm and scalloped nuclei (7). Thus, the presence of mantle structures in the case under discussion lends strong support to the theory of congenital misplacement, which is also sustained in that particular case by the presence of other congenital abnormalities, including uterus bicornis unicollis. Of special interest is the fact that in this 6-week-girl only mantle structures were present, without mature sebaceous elements, which mirrors the situation in the skin wherein large fully developed sebaceous lobules seen after birth of a child wither progressively within the ensuing weeks to become a mantle due to a decrease in the level of maternal androgens.FIG 1 UTERINE.: cervix (A) with several hair follicles, one of which (B, C) display a mantle structure.Dmitry V. Kazakov, MD, PhD* Petr Mukensnabl, MD* Denisa Kacerovska, MD, PhD* Michal Michal, MD* † *Sikl's Department of Pathology, Charles University, Medical Faculty Hospital †Bioptical Laboratory, Pilsen, Czech Republic