[The early stages of the morphogenesis and tissue lineage of an experimental malignant fibrous histiocytoma].

Morphologically atypical cells were first detected on the 98th day after subcutaneous implantation to rats of a paraffin pellet containing 2 mg of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA). These cells subsequently formed groups and finally gave rise to malignant fibrous histiocytomas. Early atypical cells were located between proliferating fibroblasts and histiocytes in the center of a fibrous capsule surrounding the DMBA-pill. They exhibited a smooth cell surface, dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum, multiple Golgi complexes, and were often associated with newly formed collagen. These cells incorporated 3H-thymidine and 3H-proline intensively, and showed weak acid phosphatase activity, but no features typical for macrophages (microvilli, numerous lysosomes, high activity of acid phosphatase, nonspecific esterases, antigens recognized by monoclonal antibodies ED1 and OX-42, vital staining with trypan blue). Atypical cells also did not differentiate into muscle cells (no expression of desmin and the alpha-sarcomeric form of actin), nor into Schwann cells (no expression of S-100 protein). No point mutation of the neu gene at nucleotide 2007, which is specific for N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea and DMBA-induced malignant rat schwannoma cells, was detected by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses of microscopically selected regions of individual 7 micron cryostat sections. These results support the view that malignant fibrous histiocytoma is derived from immature fibroblasts exhibiting pronounced phenotypic diversity during later stages of carcinogenesis.