Premium
Mulberry cells in the thyroid: warthin–finkeldey‐like cells in hashimoto thyroiditis‐associated lymphoma
Author(s) -
Lapadat Razvan,
Nam Moon Woo,
Mehrotra Swati,
Velankar Milind,
Pambuccian Stefan E.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
diagnostic cytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1097-0339
pISSN - 8755-1039
DOI - 10.1002/dc.23652
Subject(s) - pathology , follicular dendritic cells , medicine , immunostaining , germinal center , thyroiditis , lymphoma , giant cell , thyroid , histiocyte , large cell , cell type , immunohistochemistry , b cell , cell , biology , disease , antibody , immunology , t cell , adenocarcinoma , antigen presenting cell , immune system , cancer , genetics
Warthin‐Finkeldey type giant cells were first described in autopsies performed on young children who died during the highly lethal measles epidemic in Palermo during the winter of 1908. The cells had 8‐15 nuclei without identifiable cytoplasm within the germinal centers of lymphoid organs resembling megakaryocytes. We describe a case of Hashimoto thyroiditis with an enlarging substernal throid mass. The resection specimen contained many Warthin‐Finkeldey‐Like Cells (WFLC) in an extranodal marginal zone lymphoma (MALT type) with focal transformation to diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma. The WFLC showed nuclear features similar to those of neighboring follicular dendritic cells (FDCs), favoring the hypothesis that these cells might be the product of fusion of FDCs. This is supported by immunostaining results and the occurrence of similar cells in follicular dendritic cell sarcomas and in “dysplastic” FDCs in hyaline vascular type Castleman disease, a possible precursor of follicular dendritic cell tumors. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2017;45:212–216. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.