Classification of angioarchitectural structures of the rabbit tongue foliate papillae in scanning electron microscopic specimens

Abstract

Although may ultrastructural morphological studies have been undertaken on the lingual papillae of the rabbit tongue, relatively few have dealt with the microvascular structure and classification of the foliate papillae (FoP) in microvascular cast specimens (MVCS) by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For the present study, a three-dimensional observation and classification was carried out by SEM. The morphological characteristics of the outer frame structure composed of the ascending and descending capillary branches, were observed by means of MVCS of FoPs which were located on both posteroperipheral parts of the tongue. They showed a bead-like appearance and consisted of 14∼18 even, transverse and slightly bent fin-like structures, running from the dorsal surface to both peripheral sides symmetrically.

FoPs could be classified into two types: typical or manely symmetrical and atypical or manely asymmetrical. The typical type was subdivided into three types: type I was symmetrically made up of 14 fins, type II of 16 fins, type III of 18 fins. The atypical type was subdivided into two subtypes: type IV was asymmetrically made up of 14 fins (left side) and 16 fins (right side), type V of 18 fins (left side) and 16 fins (right side). Half of the 65 cases were type II (50.8%), consisting of 16 fin-like microvascular structures, and there were no sex and age differences found.

These are fin-like microvascular structures seen to increas on the surface areas and to play a functional role in sensing taste.