Cellular junctions in a spectrum of human malignant tumors

Cellular junctions in tumors are often considered a hallmark of epithelial differentiation. However, junctions are also seen in tumors having a different differentiation. This observation prompted us to study cellular junctions in malignant nonepithelial tumors. We found a variety of cellular junctions in such tumors, although the majority were poorly formed. This observation is of importance for diagnostic purposes. We have also tried to clarify the nomenclature of cellular junctions as applied in tumor diagnosis by proposing a systematic categorization of terms in everyday use by pathologists and by referring more extensively to the term paired subplasmalemmal densities (PSD) for non-well-formed junctions.