Long evans hooded rat alveolar type II cell: electron micrograph

Looking for RER granules in alveolar type II cells necessitated going back through hundreds upon hundreds of electron micrographs from about 9 different mammalian species, some experimental like this particular animal (#20) from an inhalation study with a colleague. This animal received 300 ppm ethoxyethanol for several weeks. (I would have to look up the original data to know how many weeks – I should do that).  But the purpose here was to see whether there was any appearance of plaited protein organization within the RER profiles of the cytoplasm.

9911_26538_LEHrat_20_alveolar_typeIIThis electron micrograph shows some odd cisternae of RER, but nothing that really resembles the RER granules found in guinea pig and ferret and to a lesser extent in dog.  The profiles here (highlighted in cyan) do have a few more invaginations than typically seen, at least I have to assume that this is what they are, rather than any oddly organized proteins within.  I was tempted to see them as organizaed protein initially, but think it is just the result of tangential section through more tubular rather than a more sheet-like profiles of RER.  Long evans hooded male rat, Neg 9911, animal @0, block 26538, 10,000 mag, pole piece V (Siemens 1A), enlargement 4x.