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Lewy bodies are the inclusion bodies – abnormal aggregations of protein – that develop inside nerve cells affected by Parkinson's disease , the Lewy body dementias ], and some other disorders. They are also seen in cases of multiple system atrophy, particularly the parkinsonian variant.
Lewy bodies appear as spherical masses in the cytoplasm that displace other cell components. For instance, some Lewy bodies tend to displace the nucleus to one side of the cell. There are two main kinds of Lewy bodies: classical and cortical. Lewy bodies may be found in the midbrain or within the cortex. A classical Lewy body is an eosinophilic cytoplasmic inclusion consisting of a dense core surrounded by a halo of 10-nm-wide radiating fibrils, the primary structural component of which is alpha-synuclein.