18 bone-forming tumours and tumour-like lesions were investigated immunocytochemically for the presence of osteonectin. A group of non-bone-forming skeletal tumours (five cartilage-forming tumours, four Ewing sarcomas and five extraskeletal sarcomas) served as controls. The studies showed that osteonectin antibodies react reliably with benign and malignant bone-forming tumours (two cases of fibrous dysplasia, three osteoid osteomas, 13 osteosarcomas). This finding was supported by protein blot studies. Osteonectin is formed by cells which do not yet possess the morphological phenotype of osteoblasts and may be regarded as a "differentiation marker" of the osteoblastic lineage. Only chondroid bone (tissue in which chondrocytes were surrounded by osteoid matrix containing type I and type II collagen) showed a positive reaction. All other primary skeletal tumours and extraskeletal soft tissue tumours were completely negative.