Microscopic structures (made of a dense, occasionally infective core surrounded by an envelope) seen in the cytoplasm and nuclei of cells infected with some intracellular pathogens. Inclusion bodies are seen in cells infected with herpesviruses (especially cytomegalovirus), smallpox, lymphogranuloma venereum, psittacosis, and other organisms.
An entity discovered inside body cells during viral infections, which can sometimes be the virus itself.