Howell-Jolly bodies /hou″əl jol″ē/ [William H. Howell, American physiologist, 1860–1945; Justin M.J. Jolly, French histologist, 1870–1953] , deep purple spherical erythrocyte nucleic acid inclusions observed on microscopic examination of stained blood films. They are most commonly seen in people who have hemolytic or megoblastic anemia, leukemia, thalassemia, or congenital absence of the spleen and in those who have had a splenectomy.
