Granular cell tumors of the head and neck.

Forth-two granular cell tumors of the head and neck were collected and studied with light and electron microscopy. Granular cells were found in four odontogenic tumors, two congenital epulides of newborn infants, and 36 myoblastoma lesions of the skin and mucous membranes. Support is presented for the hypothesis that granular cells represent an unusual nonspecific degenerative process and that nonodontogenic granular cell tumors develop from undifferentiated mesenchymal cells that subsequently undergo autophagocytosis.