10 Mar Sebaceous epithelial cells
This photo is from an aspirate of a pink, ‘warty’ dermal mass of an 8-yr-old, neutered male, Golden Retriever.
The picture consists of a cluster of well-differentiated sebaceous epithelial cells that have moderate amounts of blue, vacuolated cytoplasm, round nuclei, and finely stippled chromatin. A few red blood cells are also present.
Aspiration of sebaceous epithelial cells from cutaneous lesions is not uncommon. Differentials are many and include nodular sebaceous hyperplasia, a sebaceous adenoma, sebaceous epithelioma and a well-differentiated sebaceous carcinoma (less common). Since differentials include hyperplasia and neoplasia, the cytologic interpretation for observing sebaceous epithelial cells is often “sebaceous epithelial cell proliferation”, although this can vary.