Abstract
Light microscopic, histochemical, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural methods were used to examine myocardial epithelial masses in the hearts of ten cattle. The tissues consisted of paraffin-embedded or formalin-fixed samples from eight hearts that were being inspected in slaughter houses and from two hearts from calves that died of septicemia. The ages of the cattle ranged from 4 days to 12 years; the breeds were unspecified for all but one Hereford female and the two Holstein calves; and there were three males, four females, and three steers. The masses in these cases were compared with similar appearing lesions found in other animal species. The lesions in the bovine hearts were single to multiple, well circumscribed, found in the left ventricle wall, and composed of squamous to cuboidal epithelial cells that formed tubular, ductular, and acinar structures with lumens that were void or filled with amorphous protein globules. Electron microscopic examination revealed epithelial cells that had sparse apical microvilli, tight apical intercellular junctions, perinuclear bundles of filaments, and rare cilia. Almost half of the bovine epithelial masses (4/9) had occasional diastase-resistant periodic acid-Schiff-positive granules in their cytoplasm, and few had hyaluronidase-resistant alcian blue-positive granules (2/9) or colloidal iron-positive granules (1/9). All myocardial masses had abundant collagen surrounding the tubular and acinar structures, and 2/9 had elastin fibers as well. None of the myocardial masses had Churukian-Schenk or Fontana Masson's silver staining granules in epithelial cells. Immunohistochemically, all bovine myocardial tumors stained positively for cytokeratin (8/8), and occasional masses stained positively for vimentin (3/8) or carcinoembryonic antigen (3/8). None of the masses stained positively for desmin. The myocardial epithelial tumors most likely represent endodermal rests of tissue misplaced during organogenesis.