[On the etiology of spindle-shaped acid-fast bodies in the human spleen (author's transl)].

Spindle-shaped acid-fast bodies have been identified only in lymph nodes till now. Their nature and their origin remained unclear. We have also found these bodies in the human spleen. Their staining reactions and their correlations to age, sex, weight of spleen, and to hemosiderin deposits were examined. They have been encountered in 50% of cases of hereditary spherocytosis and in 41.7% of cases of traumatic rupture of the spleen--but only in 2.3% of all other cases of groups of various other disorders. We conclude from our results that: 1. The spindle-shaped acid-fast bodies are made of ceroid. 2. They are not causative organisms and therefore cannot be of importance in the etiology of sarcoidosis. 3. They derive from increased destruction of erythrocytes. 4. They originate due to oxidative polymerization of membrane lipids. 5. They may also be found in absence of any fat-metabolism disturbance.