Morphometric difference in the human maxillary nerve fibers between dentulous and edentulous jaw subjects.
This study was conducted to quantify the change in the number and size of myelinated nerve fibers of the maxillary nerve with tooth loss in humans. We carried out a morphometric analysis to compare the number and size of myelinated nerve fibers in the human maxillary nerve between four dentulous and four edentulous jaw cases. Our results indicated that the number of axons decreased by approximately 13,000 with tooth loss. The average size of axons remained unchanged, but there was a change in the fiber size distribution, namely the loss of a large number of small-sized axons was accompanied by the total disappearance of small number of large-sized axons.
Ishikawa
Hiroyuki
H
Department of Anatomy, Showa University School of Medicine, 5-8, Hatanodai 1, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 142-8555, Japan.
Ezure
Hiromitsu
H
Goto
Noboru
N
Kamiyama
Akemi
A
Yanai
Tetsu
T
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001369:Axons / Q000473:pathology; D002452:Cell Count; D048429:Cell Size; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007568:Jaw / Q000294:innervation* / Q000503:physiopathology; D007575:Jaw, Edentulous / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008442:Maxillary Nerve / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology; D036421:Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated / Q000473:pathology; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000473:pathology; D014070:Tooth / Q000294:innervation* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000503:physiopathology*