The origin and characteristics of ceroid.

The study presents an evidence that the stromal element of erythrocytes contributes most to the formation of ceroid, while hemorrhage or erythrocytes, has so far failed to show any relationship with lipofuscin, indicating the basic difference of ceroid from lipofuscin. It is postulated that, once the initial building stones of ceroid, mainly composed of glycoprotein, are organized in the intracellular structure of macrophages, they would be gradually oxidized to expose, through enolization, ethylenic double bonds which readily combine with unsaturated lipids, and thus the pigment obtains a sudanophilia on paraffin sections. Ceroid cannot be only a derivative of highly unsaturated fatty acids. ACTA PATH. JAP. 17: 439–456, 1967