Glial and nonglial neoplasms evaluated on frozen section by double immunofluorescence for fibronectin and glial fibrillary acidic protein.

Antisera against fibronectin (FN) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were used to combined on frozen sections of surgical biopsies to distinguish between astrocytoma and hemangioblastoma, meningioma, or sarcoma. The nonglial neoplasms contained FN in their parenchyma, whereas the gliomas contained GFAP. The immunofluorescent staining procedure takes 10 min. The immunoperoxidase staining for the permanent files takes 30 min. The stains have been used in this institute for more than 1 year, and 26 tumors have been evaluated.