Ultrastructure of beige mouse peritoneal macrophage lysosomes.

One phenotypic expression of the Chediak-Higashi syndrome in humans and the analogous disorder in the beige mouse (C57BL/6bg/bg) is the presence of anomalous lysosomes identifiable as enlarged cytoplasmic inclusions. This alteration has been used in the study of the circulation and source of certain mononuclear phagocytes in mice. In the present study abnormally enlarged lysosomes are inconsistently demonstrable in the resident peritoneal macrophage of the beige mouse. However, the beige phenotype is also expressed in resident peritoneal macrophages by the presence of anomalous ring form and elongated dumbbell-shaped lysosomes. The former structures resemble those recently described [13] in blood monocytes from patients with the Chediak-Higashi syndrome.