Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Fate Mapping of Human Embryonic Stem Cells by Teratoma Formation
Published on: August 1, 2010
Mature teratoma of the uterine cervix with pulmonary differentiation
A Khoor1, M V Fleming, C A Purcell
1Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn, USA.
Teratomas of the uterus are very rare, and a uterine teratoma with pulmonary differentiation has not, to our knowledge, been described previously. In this article, we report such a case in a 33-year-old woman, who presented with heavy vaginal bleeding and a polypoid mass of the uterine cervix. The cervical lesion was composed entirely of mature lung tissue, including bronchial, bronchiolar, and alveolar structures. The presence of well-differentiated respiratory epithelial cells, ie, Clara cells and alveolar type II cells, is confirmed by immunohistochemistry. The patient had no history of dilatation and curettage; therefore, implantation of fetal tissue could be excluded from the differential diagnoses. Since this is a newly developed mass in an adult individual, we favor a neoplastic process over heterotopia and interpret the lesion as unilateral lung development in an extragonadal mature teratoma.
Teratomas of the uterus are very rare, and a uterine teratoma with pulmonary differentiation has not, to our knowledge, been described previously. In this article, we report such a case in a 33-year-old woman, who presented with heavy vaginal bleeding and a polypoid mass of the uterine cervix. The cervical lesion was composed entirely of mature lung tissue, including bronchial, bronchiolar, and alveolar structures. The presence of well-differentiated respiratory epithelial cells, ie, Clara cells and alveolar type II cells, is confirmed by immunohistochemistry. The patient had no history of dilatation and curettage; therefore, implantation of fetal tissue could be excluded from the differential diagnoses. Since this is a newly developed mass in an adult individual, we favor a neoplastic process over heterotopia and interpret the lesion as unilateral lung development in an extragonadal mature teratoma.

