Intraneuronal lipid droplets in irradiated nervous tissue

Inclusions were found in the mitral cells of olfactory bulbs of proton irradiated rats. They exhibited the fine structural features currently ascribed to lipid droplets. They were observed in the cytoplasm of perikaria and dendrites. The inclusions were tentatively interpreted as a structural manifestation of cell response to sublethal injury. This neuronal condition occurs occasionally under a variety of circumstances, but is seldom reported, and in fact, this might very well be the first electron microscopic illustration of “fatty change” in nerve cells.