Intestinal-type carcinoma of gallbladder. A histochemical and immunologic study

Two intestinal carcinomas of the gallbladder are presented. In both carcinomas the structure was papillary in superficial parts; the deeper ones also tended to an adenomatous structure. One of the tumors was bordered by a mucosa, with both intestinal- and antral-type metaplastic islands. The tumor was mainly a typical papilloma with malignant degeneration and infiltrative growth. The intestinal structure was morphologically clear in the papillary area of both carcinomas, but not distinct in the invasive part of the tumor. In both tumors, goblet cells and columnar cells with a distinct brush border were noted. Histochemical and immunologic methods were used in the identification of the glycoproteins of the tumor cells. With both methods the intestinal character of the tumor could be shown. A positive fluorescence was achieved with an intestinal antiserum in well-differentiated tumorous areas containing goblet cells, as well as in the intestinal metaplastic areas. In the same areas the gallbladder-specific antigen was negative. The antiserum isolated from the normal gastric mucosa and corresponding to neutral glycoprotein gave a positive fluorescence only in the nontumorous metaplastic gastric superficial-type epithelium and in the metaplastic antral-type glands.