Migración de melanocitos dendríticos epidérmicos y colonización de un carcinoma mamario infiltrante

Resumen

Four types of migration of epidermal dendritic melanocytes, which give origin to melanocytic colonization, are reviewed herein. They take place in: intraepidermal nevi and melanomas, intradermal nevi, pigmented lesions and tumors composed of basaloid cells, as well as in primary and metastatic breast carcinomas. A case of a ductal infiltrating carcinoma appearing as a pigmented lesion of the areola and nipple, which was misinterpreted as a melanoma, is presented. Migration and colonization of cutaneous dendritic melanocytes to the carcinoma was found to be the cause, which was demonstrated with various histopathological techniques. A revision was made of the mechanisms that support a symbiotic relationship or biologic balance between dendritic melanocytes, basal or basaloid keratinocytes and epithelial cells of breast carcinoma. It has been determined that the last two can secrete chemotactic, melanogenic and/or proliferative factors, capable of promoting the migration of melanocytes. From these, the most important is, or seems to be, the anti-basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Migration and colonization of dendritic melanocytes to breast carcinoma, keeping their normal characteristics, contends against the widely accepted histogenesis of intradermal nevi’s superficial cells (A and B), which presupposes a radical transformation, structural as well as functional, of melanocytes into intradermal nevus cells.