ABSTRACT
Two patients with breast ductal carcinoma metastases of the bladder are reported. Macrohaematuria was not present at the time of diagnosis. The time interval between surgery for primary carcinoma and detection of bladder metastases was remarkably long in both cases (63 and 164 months).
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating/secondary , Urinary Bladder Neoplasms/secondary , Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating/pathology , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Urinary Bladder Neoplasms/pathologyABSTRACT
Mast cells are known to participate in three phases of wound healing: the inflammatory reaction, angiogenesis and extracellular-matrix reabsorption. The inflammatory reaction is mediated by released histamine and arachidonic acid metabolites. Compound 48/80 and disodium-cromoglycate are both able to increase skin breaking strength shortly after wounding. Under light and electron microscopy we found that small, granule-poor, irregular mast cells (MLMC) accumulate in the wound. This suggests that the small MLMC (mucosal-like mast cells) migrate into the skin during wound healing, and that both CTMC (connective-tissue mast cells) and MLMC are involved in tissue repair. Moreover, there is some evidence that mast cells participate in angiogenesis, since heparin is able to stimulate endothelial-cell migration and proliferation in vitro, and protamine to inhibit these processes and also angiogenesis in vivo. When the effect of protamine on wound breaking strength was examined, we encountered a decrease which was not prevented by heparin administration. Further studies are needed to demonstrate that protamine is specifically involved in inhibiting heparin-mediated angiogenesis in wounded tissue. Finally, mast cells may play a role in the extracellular matrix remodelling, on the basis of in-vitro experiments (but there are still no in-vivo data).
