Palatal taste buds in man: topographical arrangement in islands of keratinized epithelium.
In an attempt to find and reconstruct the exact anatomical correlate of taste sensitivity in the human soft palate, a novel approach was used to examine the mucosal surface in conjunction with serial tissue sectioning. Six human subjects, 15 to 29 years of age, 3 females and 3 males, served to take precision impressions of the hard and the anterior soft palate, using non-commercial trays and a self-curing resin. From these impressions, replicas were cast in Epon and subsequently sputter-coated with gold and examined in a scanning electron microscope. In addition, one biopsy was taken from one of the volunteers, in an area including taste bud-suspicious elements. It was found that the anterior soft palate mucosa included 10 to 30, oval to round, site-exotic islands, about 0.2-0.6 mm in diameter, which were covered by a thin, keratinizing stratified squamous epithelium. These islands occurred mainly in an area located in the central part of the soft palate, immediately posterior to the hard/soft palate boundary. The keratinizing epithelium of such islands carried four to seven taste buds which were lacking elsewhere. These islands were formed by a large, mushroom-like connective tissue papilla penetrating most of the site-specific mucosal epithelium, with its cover of keratinizing epithelium, forming sharp external and internal cell-to-cell borderlines with the surrounding, non-keratinizing stratified squamous epithelium. These findings are discussed in relation to induction phenomena necessary to form such islands, and to the variable taste sensitivity detected clinically in this region.
Imfeld
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TN
Department of Oral Structural Biology, University of Zürich, Switzerland.
Schroeder
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HE
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004848:Epithelium / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / Q000379:methods*; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010160:Palate, Soft / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000648:ultrastructure*