title: Ultrastructural aspects of female aging Wistar rat epithelium tongue: a HRSEM and TEM study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is general consensus that the effects of intrinsic aging on the oral mucosa are relatively small, though potentially important to understanding the pathologies present in the aged animals.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this paper, the development of dorsal surface of rat tongue was examined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM) in order to understand the age-related structural and ultrastructural changes experimentally.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, we used female rats 75 and 720 days old (adult and aging). Tissues of rat tongue were prepared and the specimens submitted to HRSEM and TEM techniques.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis of HRSEM and TEM demonstrated that the same characteristic keratinous epithelium was found in aging animals, however with some modifications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We agree that there are obvious changes in the oral mucosa with aging and these modifications can be observed starting from the ultrastructural aspects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marilia Gabriela de Oliveira
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: Ii-sei
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Luís Eduardo Silva
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Newton Soares
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Marcelo Cavenaghi Pereira
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: da Silva
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004848:Epithelium / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014059:Tongue / Q000648:ultrastructure*