Dermatofibroma is a clonal proliferative disease

Benign fibrous histiocytoma of the skin or dermatofibroma (DF) has been regarded as a fibrohistiocytic tumor. Whether DF is a neoplastic growth or a reactive process has not been settled. Since a neoplastic process is clonal in nature, clonal analysis of DF was conducted to see if DF is a clonal disease. Fresh specimens of 13 DFs and 2 hypertrophic scars obtained from female patients were studied. The adjacent nonlesional skin tissues served as controls. The clonal analysis was based on the methylation pattern of the polymorphic X‐chromosome linked androgen‐receptor gene (HUMARA). Eight DFs and 1 hypertrophic scar were heterozygous at the androgen receptor gene and could be analyzed. All 8 informative DFs showed a significant reduction in one of the allelic bands compared with the corresponding bands of the nonlesional tissue after Hha I digestion. Therefore, DF is a clonal proliferative disease. In contrast, 1 hypertrophic scar showed a polyclonal pattern of X‐chromosome inactivation. We conclude that DF is a clonal disease favoring a neoplastic process.