An ultrastructural study of spontaneous chronic lung lesions in asymptomatic rabbits

Crystal containing membrane bound intracellular inclusion bodies in the epithelium of experimentally infected sinus mucosa

The sinus mucosa of 16 rabbits was experimentally infected with Bacteroides fragilis. This paper describes and discusses large inclusion bodies, which were found in abundance by light and electron microscopy inside ciliated cells of the sinus epithelium in 3 of the studied animals. The spindle-shaped inclusions were located in the apical portion of the cytoplasm. They were bound by a trilaminar membrane with several coils to the interior as well as to the exterior. The interior of an inclusion body consisted to a large extent of electron-lucent, floccular substance, but fibrogranular aggregates and rod-shaped crystals with a line periodicity center-to-center of about 15 nm were also conspicuous. These peculiar formations may be constituted by abnormally stored material from defective synthesis of cilia.

Indirect immunoperoxidase and immunofluorescence staining of Bordetella bronchiseptica in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lung tissues of rabbits

Indirect immunoperoxidase (IP) and immunofluorescence (IF) techniques were developed, and used for the identification of B. bronchiseptica in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lung tissues of 26 rabbits displaying focal chronic interstitial pneumonia, vascular changes, and chronic bronchitis and bronchiolitis. Labelled B. bronchiseptica organisms were observed at the level of the bronchial and bronchiolar mucosa, both in areas affected by chronic bronchitis-bronchiolitis and in zones that were free of lesions. B. bronchiseptica was not observed in areas of focal chronic interstitial pneumonia, nor in vessels exhibiting inflammatory changes. B. bronchiseptica was observed also in a few rabbits that were culturally negative for this agent. The results obtained suggest that B. bronchiseptica could have been related to the lesions of chronic bronchitis and bronchiolitis observed, but not to the changes of focal chronic interstitial pneumonia and vasculitis, as areas affected by these alterations did not exhibit B. bronchiseptica immunoreactivity.