title: The postnatal changes in the density of sensory nerve endings in the oral mucosa of the cat.
abstract: The changes that occur in the distribution and density of the encapsulated endings and Merkel cell-neurite complexes of the lingual gingival and alveolar mucosa of the mandible of kittens from birth to 28 d of age were observed through the use of methylene blue vital staining. The distribution of encapsulated endings showed a tendency to increase over the total area of the mucosae, but Merkel cell-neurite complexes tended to group into bands across the gingivae. While the density of the nerve endings of the former showed a continuous increase over the time period from the day of birth, when they totalled 13/cm2, to the 28th d by which that figure had increased to 144/cm2, the latter showed no such marked increase, totalling only 35/cm2 and 50/cm2, respectively. Further observations were made of the ultrastructures of organized endings in adult cat.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Tokyo Dental College, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tazaki
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats / Q000254:growth & development*; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000294:innervation*; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000648:ultrastructure