Evidence of a polyclonal nature of myositis ossificans

Myositis ossificans is a localized, self-limiting, reparative lesion that is composed of reactive hypercellular fibrous tissue and bone. Although it is clearly a benign lesion, its clinical, radiological, and histological appearance may sometimes mimic a malignant tumor. Whether myositis ossificans represents a monoclonal or polyclonal hyperplastic proliferation is not yet known. To address this question, we therefore extracted DNA from the respective paraffin-embedded tumor tissues of nine women with a median age of 50 years at diagnosis (range: 20-84 years) and studied the X inactivation pattern by means of methylation-sensitive polymerase chain reaction and primers that target the polymorphic CGG trinucleotide repeat of the FMR1 gene. The fact that we did not detect any skewing of the X inactivation pattern in the five successfully analyzed cases corroborates the notion that myositis ossificans results from a polyclonal proliferation and confirms that it is a reactive, reparative process. Analysis of the X inactivation pattern may, thus, supplement the differential diagnostic work-up of cases with an uncertain histology, at least in the informative proportion of female patients.