Figure 22
From: Basal cell carcinoma: biology, morphology and clinical implications
Nodular BCC: ultrastructural features. The nodular BCC is characterized by rounded nests of neoplastic basaloid cells (a) that are deliminated by an almost continuous basal lamina (b, straight arrow). Note the presence of numerous hemidesmosomes at the interface between the plasma membrane of the neoplastic basal cells and the adjacent delimiting basal lamina (straight arrow), and the absence of anchoring fibrils (curved arrow) that helps to explain the slit-like stromal retraction so characteristic of BCC at the light microscopic level.
