Chronic tellurium intoxication in rats.

(1) Accumulation of neuronal lipofuscin was clearly demonstrated in the chronic tellurium intoxication in young rats with histological, fluorescent and electron-microscopical methods; (2) The needle-shaped crystal in the neuronal lysosomes were demostrated to contain the tellurium with electron dispersive spectrophotometry analysis. (3) The vacuolation of the cytoplasm of Schwann cells was the initial pathological change noted in the tellurium peripheral neuropathy.