We examined ultrastructurally the postmortem tissues of a patient with hemophilia A who developed AIDS to search for LAV/HTLV-III. Round particles, 80-100 nm in diameter, with a bar-shaped nucleoid, were observed frequently in the extracellular spaces of the lymph node, liver and spleen. These particles were morphologically identical with the mature LAV/HTLV-III which belonged to D type retrovirus. The budding of virions on the plasma membranes, the characteristic release from of retrovirus

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... cells, was also found in these tissues. In addition to these findings, two types of cytoplasmic inclusion bodies were observed: one is "tubuloreticular structures (TRS)" in the lymph node and liver, and the other is structures analogous to "test tube and ring shaped forms (TRF)" in the lymph node. These structures have been described previously by Sidhu et al. as ultrastructural markers of AIDS. The relationship of these inclusion bodies with LAV/HTLV-III infection and growth remains to be clarified.