Cholesterol may accumulate in the healthy tissue secondary to excessive assumption with the diet or, more commonly in laboratory species, following degenerative and/or necrotic processes which make available a lot of cholesterol in the extracellular space, from the plasmatic membranes of degenerated cells; in these condition they tend to crystallize into large acicular crystals. In sections of tissues embedded in paraffin, they appear as empty spaces caused by the dissolving out of cholesterol crystals due to the solvents used in the processing.
Synonyms
Alveolar cholesterol clefts
Cholesterol cleft(s)
Cholesterol clefts
Cholesterol clefts in the choroid plexus
Cholesterol clefts, cortical
Cholesterol crystals
Cleft, cholesterol
Deposit: cholesterol
Foamy alveolar macrophages with cholesterol clefts