The ultrastructural observation of a case of lymphomatoid papulosis

Abstract

Electron microscopic studies of biopsy specimens from a patient with lymphomatoid papulosis were performed. In the epidermis, infiltrating lymphoid cells, many of which had highly convoluted nuclei, were revealed to come into close contact to increased Langerhans´ cells but did not accumulate to form microabscesses. In the dermis, Langerhans´ cells with rather small numbers of Birbeck granules were scattered among the thick infiltration of mononuclear cells showing close apposition with lymphoid cells. Some macrophages contacted the Langerhans´ cells and lymphoid cells were also observed. On one occasion, a Langerhans´ cell clinged by a lymphoid cell in the uppermost dermis was revealed to expand the cytoplasm through the ruptured basal lamina touching another lymphoid cell in the epidermis.