Morphological characterization of spindle cell tumors induced in transgenic Tg.AC mouse skin

Transgenic Tg.AC mice carry a v-Ha-ras coding region flanked by a zeta-globin promoter and an SV40 polyadenylation signal sequence. These mice respond to carcinogens by developing epidermal papillomas. In some cases, malignancies develop at the sites of these papillomas. Various patterns of squamous cell differentiation were observed in these malignancies. One malignancy that developed at the site of the papillomas was composed of bundles of spindle cells. This lesion is difficult to distinguish from fibrosarcomas by light microscopy. We characterized 16 of these malignancies (tentatively classified as spindle cell tumors) to determine if they were of epithelial or mesenchymal origin. Papillomas were induced in Tg.AC mice by full thickness wounding, 12-O-tetradecanoyl-13-phorbol acetate treatment, or ultraviolet radiation. With time, some papillomas became broad-based, downwardly invading lesions. These lesions were examined by light microscopy with immunohistochemical analysis for cytokeratins and by electron microscopy. Immunohistochemical examination with a polyclonal anti-cytokeratin antibody demonstrated various degrees of keratin staining in all tumors examined. Attenuated desmosomes were also observed in these lesions by electron microscopy. These results indicate an epithelial origin for these malignancies; therefore, they should be classified as spindle cell carcinomas.