Light and electron microscopic comparisons of cutaneous fibromas in white-tailed and mule deer

Cutaneous fibromas of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), when compared with normal skin of the same species, had a thinner basement membrane; thickened stratum spinosum with numerous melanocytes, desmosomes, polyribosomes, and tonofilaments; focal hyperplasia of the stratum granulosum containing numerous large, electron-dense keratohyalin granules with irregular borders and containing occasional cells with diffuse intranuclear virus particles; and a moderately thickened stratum corneum with (although rarely) small crystalline arrays of virus particles. Normal mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) skin was structurally similar to that of the white-tailed deer. Mule deer fibromas were similar to those in white-tailed deer, except for diffuse thickening of the stratum granulosum (the cells of which contained large keratohyalin granules of various electron densities with occasional composite granules) and except for a markedly thickened stratum corneum that contained numerous intranuclear viral inclusions. In negatively stained homogenates of tumors from both deer species, viral particles resembled papillomaviruses.