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Mentalis nerve branches supplying the lower lip revisited: a study of human fetuses and donated elderly cadavers

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Abstract

Purpose

Little information is known about the mentalis nerve course from the lower lip approximation margin (free margin) to the upper lip. Likewise, no difference in nerve distribution has been observed between the cutaneous and mucosal parts of the lip. Therefore, this study reexamined mentalis nerve morphology.

Methods

For macroscopic observations, three fresh cadavers were dissected (one male and two females; aged 78–93). We also evaluated histological sections obtained from five donated elderly cadavers (two males and three females, aged 82–96 years) and 15 human fetuses (11–40 weeks or crown–rump length 80–372 mm). Immunohistochemical analysis for S100 protein and tyrosine hydroxylase was performed.

Results

In both fetuses and adult cadavers, one to three nerve branches ran upward in the submucosal tissue from the mental foramen. Near the free margin of the lip, some branches passed through the orbicularis oris muscle layer toward the lip skin, whereas others followed a reversed J-shaped course along the free margin. Nerve twigs ran in parallel beneath the mucosa, whereas wavy nerve twigs attached to the basal lamina of the lip epidermis. The difference in nerve endings abruptly occurred at the skin–mucosal junction. Tyrosine hydroxylase-positive sympathetic nerve twigs surrounded arteries and formed a branch composed of S100-negative unmyelinated fibers.

Conclusion

The lower lip skin was innervated by a perforating branch passing through the orbicularis oris muscle, that was different from the lip mucosa. A sudden change in the nerve ending configuration at the mucocutaneous junction seemed to develop postnatally.

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Data availability

No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Author notes

  1. Kwang Ho Cho and Yuki Sugiyama contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Institute of Wonkwang Medical Science, Wonkwang University School of Medicine and Hospital, 895, Muwang-ro, Iksan-si, 54538, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea

    Kwang Ho Cho

  2. Department of Anatomy, Tokyo Dental College, 2-9-18 Kanda-Misakicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0061, Japan

    Yuki Sugiyama, Genji Watanabe, Hidetomo Hirouchi, Gen Murakami & Shin-ichi Abe

  3. Division of Internal Medicine, Cupid Clinic, Iwamizawa, Japan

    Gen Murakami

  4. Department of Anatomy and Embryology, School of Medicine, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain

    Jose Francisco Rodríguez-Vázquez

Authors
  1. Kwang Ho Cho
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  2. Yuki Sugiyama
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  3. Genji Watanabe
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  4. Hidetomo Hirouchi
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  5. Gen Murakami
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  7. Shin-ichi Abe
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Contributions

KHC: project development, data analysis, data collection, manuscript writing. YS: project development, data analysis, data collection, manuscript writing. GW: data collection, data analysis. HH: data collection, data analysis. GM: project development, data analysis, manuscript writing. JFR-V: data analysis, manuscript editing. SA: data management, manuscript editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kwang Ho Cho.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The use of these specimens was approved by the Ethics Committee of Complutense University (B08/374), the Tokyo Dental College (No. 922-2, 932-2) and the Akita University Ethics Committee (No. 1,428).

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Cho, K.H., Sugiyama, Y., Watanabe, G. et al. Mentalis nerve branches supplying the lower lip revisited: a study of human fetuses and donated elderly cadavers. Surg Radiol Anat (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-024-03365-2

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