Nissl body

A Nissl body (or Nissl granule or tigroid body) is a large granular body found in nerve cells. It was named after Franz Nissl, German neurologist (1860-1919).

Nissl bodies can be demonstrated by selective staining, which was developed by Nissl and was an aniline stain used to label extranuclear RNA granules.

These granules are rough endoplasmic reticulum (with ribosomes) and are the site of protein synthesis.

Nissl bodies show changes under various physiological conditions and in pathological conditions they may dissolve and disappear (karyolysis).