Tubular bodies (Weibel-Palade bodies) in endothelial cells of glioblastomas and astrocytomas.

The mean % ratio value of the number of endothelial cells with tubular bodies for the 6 cases of the glioblastomas proved to be 32.4% in the margin, which was about two times as high as that (15.7%) in the center of the tumors, showing a tendency for tubular bodies to be increased broadly in parallel with vascularization. In the 5 cases of astrocytoma, vascularization was less marked, and the mean % ratio was lower (14.8%) in all studied locations of the astrocytoma. It is suggested that the tubular bodies in the endothelial cells of microvessels of astrocytic tumors could increase in relation to microvessel proliferation and tumor malignancy.