Ultrastructural features of macrophages of armadillos infected with actively multiplying Mycobacterium leprae

Experimental leprosy lesions in the armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) were studied by freeze etching and ultrathin sectioning. Infected macrophages have distinct intracytoplasmic foamy structures in the form of spherical droplets accumulated around multiplying bacilli. This finding is the same as those observed in human lepra cells and nude mice macrophages infected with M. leprae.