High power view of an abdominal desmoid

High power view of an abdominal desmoid •A high power view of a desmoid tumor. •The two black arrows point to infiltrating inflammatory cells within the lesion. •The multitude of green arrows point to the large vesicular nuclei that reflect active fibroblasts. •It would be instructive to view this image in association with resting dermal fibroblasts. •In normal dermal collagen, one would see relatively few nuclei, and these would be elongated and homogeneously dark staining, reflecting that inactive state. •In contrast, the nuclei in this field are many, distinctly larger and have a lighter staining character. •All these features are typical of active fibroblasts. •There is some controversy whether a desmoid tumor is a true neoplasm, or an over-reactive reparative response to an injury. (Description By:T. V. Rajan, M.D. ) (Image Contrib. by:T. V. Rajan, M.D. UCHC )