Fig 9.

Cell budding from normal epithelial structures at pre-invasive-invasive junction. A CRC tissue section was double immunostained for CK AE1/3 (red) and LCA (brown). The circle in A identifies the low magnification views of the structures in B. Stars identify normal appearing epithelial structures at the pre-invasive-invasive junction. Thick and thin arrows identify dissociated epithelial cells and their associated lymphocytes, respectively. Note that the entire section harbor no morphologically distinct intra-mucosal carcinoma, while many dissociated epithelial cells or cell clusters are seen at the pre-invasive and invasive junction. These dissociated epithelial cells appear to be directly budding from the normal epithelial structures (stars). Also note that the pre-invasive-invasive junction and dissociated epithelial cells are exclusively seen adjacent to the lymphocyte aggregates. A: 80X. B: A higher (200X) of A.