Ultrastructure of capillaries in acoustic neurilemmoma.

The microvasculature of normal acoustic nerve tissue and small intracanalicular and large extracanalicular neurilemmomas was analyzed by electron microscopy. The capillaries of normal acoustic nerve were nonfenestrated, but the microvasculature in nerve-sheath neoplasms was fenestrated. Hypertrophy and hyperplasia of endothelial cells were observed only in the small lesions. The proliferated and enlarge endothelial cells often partially occluded the vascular lumen and formed multichannel vascular lumina. Many fenestrae of capillaries were found in small neoplasms, but these were rarely identified in the large extracanalicular lesions. The gap junctions of endothelium in small nerve-sheath neoplasms were long, wavy, and convoluted, had no openings, and differed from those of large lesions in which the tight junctions were short, straight, and occasionally patent. Additionally, heavy vascularization and erythrocytes within basement membranes were observed only in large neurilemmomas. These ultrastructural features may constitute a basis for differences between large and small acoustic neurilemmomas noted in cerebrospinal fluid findings.