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Various studies have reported the utility of anti-CD34 staining in the differential diagnosis of dermal spindle-cell tumors. To investigate whether monoclonal antibody Ki-M1p might add practical diagnostic information, we examined a total of 120 cutaneous spindle cell neoplasms using a panel of markers. Anti-CD34 antibody QBEnd/10 consistently stained dermatofibrosarcomas, Kaposi's sarcomas, neurofibromas, and, to a lesser extent, hemangiopericytomas. A positive reaction was also found in > 18% of the dermatofibromas. Ki-M1p staining showed an intense immunoreaction in all dermatofibromas, whereas no reactivity was observed in dermatofibrosarcomas. In addition, a subset of cells was labeled in atypical fibroxanthomas and Kaposi's sarcomas. Neurofibromas, spindle-cell hemangioendotheliomas, and hemangiopericytomas were negative. Dermatofibrosarcomas and atypical fibroxanthomas also moderately expressed smooth muscle-specific actin. Immunohistochemically, a discrimination between dermatofibrosarcomas and neurofibromas was possible only by means of an antibody against the nerve growth factor receptor. We conclude that the combination of several antibodies, in particular anti-CD34 and Ki-M1p, may improve the accuracy of diagnostic immunohistochemistry in the field of cutaneous spindle cell tumors. We speculate that dermatofibroma is primarily a macrophage-rich inflammatory lesion in which cytokine secretion induces a secondary proliferation of fibroblasts, whereas dermatofibrosarcoma is likely to issue from primitive dermal cells of uncertain origin.

The morphometric investigation of the proximal and distal tubules, the cortical interstitium, the inter-tubular capillaries, the renal corpuscles and the juxtaglomerular apparatuses (JGAs) in 56 cases in the oligoanuric, polyuric, and normuric phases of human acute renal failure (ARF), 6 cases of myeloma kidney with clinically confirmed ARF and 21 control kidneys revealed the following: (1) The main pathological change in human ARF is swelling of the epithelial cells of the proximal and distal tubules. Necrosis of these cells was observed in some cases but usually only as single cell necroses. (2) The interstitium of the cortex and of the outer stripe of the outer medulla is significantly widened in most cases of ARF. (3) In proximal tubules proximal to occluding casts (which were observed only in the plasmacytoma cases), the lumina are not widened but are narrower than normal, and the cross-sectional area of the epithelium is not greater but smaller than normal. (4) The JGAs were significantly larger in kidneys in the oligoanuric phase of ARF (with 1 exception) than in normal kidneys. In the normuric and polyuric phases they were slightly (not significantly) smaller than normal. In myeloma kidneys with occluding casts and/or diffuse interstitial fibrosis, the JGAs were significantly smaller than normal. From these findings it is concluded that: (1) The fall in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in the postshock phase of ARF is not caused by nonselective back-diffusion of the primary urine through necrotic tubules or by compression of the lumina of the proximal and distal tubules by interstitial edema. A fall in GFR associated with occluding casts in the distal tubules is found only in the myeloma kidney and does not lead to widening of the proximal tubules but to tubular atrophy and narrowing of the lumen. (2) The casts seen in the lumina of the ascending limb of Henle’s loop in some cases of ARF, which consist of hemoglobin, Tamm-Horsfall protein or desquamated blebs, do not occlude the lumen, since they are not associated with atrophy or luminal dilatation of the proximal tubules. (3) The JGAs with their secretory product renin-angiotensin II, together with adenosine, which is released in kidneys with ischemic or toxic damage, play a critical role in the pathogenesis of ARF. (4) In myeloma kidneys with ARF, in which the JGAs are markedly atrophic, the potentiated effect of adenosine that has been observed with a chronic absence of urine flow probably leads to a progressive, irreversible drop in GFR associated with tubular atrophy.