Naturally occurring intracytoplasmic inclusions in the canine exocrine pancreas

Bodies similar to acidophilic intracytoplasmic inclusions were found by light microscopy in the pancreatic acinar cells of 56 of 174 (32%) healthy male and female purebred Beagles and 14 of 97 (14%) of healthy male mongrel dogs. The inclusions were ovoid, acidophilic and often granular with basophilic particulates. Many seemed to be enclosed within halos of various widths. Electron microscopically the inclusions consisted of whorls of rough endoplasmic reticulum, vacuoles, and cytoplasmic organelles in various stages of decomposition. These inclusion bodies were interpreted as evidence of focal intracytoplasmic degradation. They appeared similar to the dense ribosomal autophagic vacuoles, hitherto described only in association with various experimental procedures.