Origin of unreactive hyaline bodies from erythrocytes in genital tumors

Two genital tumors, one a lipid virilizing cell tumor of the ovary, the other an ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor with retiform pattern, were studied focusing attention on the numerous eosinophilic hyaline bodies that were present both in the extracellular spaces and within the cytoplasm of the proliferating cells. Histochemistry and immunohistochemistry revealed that they were PAS positive and alpha-1-fetoprotein negative. Under electronmicroscopy these hyaline bodies appeared to correspond to variably altered red blood cells: red blood cell ghosts, erythrocytes with Heinz bodies, phagocytosed erythrocytes. Our findings could explain the origin of at least a part of the hyaline bodies found in similar or in other unrelated pathologies.