The ultrastructure of conventional, parosteal, and periosteal osteosarcomas

Twenty-seven osteosarcomas of bone were examined by electron microscopy. Eighteen cases were conventional osteosarcomas, one case was an osteosarcoma that developed in Paget's disease of bone, two cases were metastasis to the lungs of conventional osteosarcomas, five were parosteal osteosarcomas (and the recurrence of one of them), and one was periosteal osteosarcoma. In addition to the basic neoplastic cell, the osteoblast-like tumor cell, seven tumor cell types could be differentiated in varying numbers in the 27 cases examined: (1) chondroblast-like; (2) fibroblast-like; (3) histiocyte-like; (4) myofibroblast; (5) osteoclast-like; (6) malignant multinucleated osteoblast-like; and (7) atypical primitive mesenchymal cells. Moreover, endothelial cells and pericytes were also present. The tumor cells showed common neoplastic features in relation with general cell configuration and fine structures. No cytoplasmic organelle was considered to be cell-specific, and only the amount and distribution of the organelles allowed us to differentiate the above mentioned cell types. The presence of malignant appearing tumor cells with abundant and dilated cisternae of RER, in an intercellular matrix containing collagen fibers with areas of focal collections or puffs of hydroxyapatite crystals, are the most characteristic ultrastructural features of osteosarcoma. However, those features are not pathognomonic and do not allow in all cases the differential diagnosis with osteoid-osteoma and benign osteoblastoma. Fields of chondroblastic, fibroblastic, or fibrohitiocytic character are indistinguishable of chondrosarcomas, fibrosarcomas, or malignant fibrous histiocytoma of bone, respectively. The comparative study of parosteal and conventional osteosarcomas revealed a marked difference in the cell population: fibroblast-like cells and myofibroblasts were the main cell types in parosteal osteosarcoma; on the contrary, myofibroblasts were very scarce or absent in conventional osteosarcomas. This difference may correlate with the better outcome of parosteal osteosarcoma. The ultrastructural features of a periosteal osteosarcoma are reported for the first time. The tumor was comprised mostly of chondroblast-like tumor cells. However, in the more cellular peripheric areas of the neoplasm, the cells were predominantly of the fibroblast-like type and showed anaplastic features.