title: Lymphatic Stomata in the Adult Human Pulmonary Ligament.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lymphatic stomata are small lymphatic openings in the serosal membrane that communicate with the serosal cavity. Although these stomata have primarily been studied in experimental mammals, little is known concerning the presence and properties of lymphatic stomata in the adult human pleura. Thus, adult human pleurae were examined for the presence or absence of lymphatic stomata.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 26 pulmonary ligaments (13 left and 13 right) were obtained from 15 adult human autopsy cases and examined using electron and light microscopy. The microscopic studies revealed the presence of apertures fringed with D2-40-positive, CD31-positive, and cytokeratin-negative endothelial cells directly communicating with submesothelial lymphatics in all of the pulmonary ligaments. The apertures' sizes and densities varied from case to case according to the serial tissue section. The medians of these aperture sizes ranged from 2.25 to 8.75 μm in the left pulmonary ligaments and from 2.50 to 12.50 μm in the right pulmonary ligaments. The densities of the apertures ranged from 2 to 9 per mm(2) in the left pulmonary ligaments and from 2 to 18 per mm(2) in the right pulmonary ligaments. However, no significant differences were found regarding the aperture size (p=0.359) and density (p=0.438) between the left and the right pulmonary ligaments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study revealed that apertures exhibit structural adequacy as lymphatic stomata on the surface of the pulmonary ligament, thereby providing evidence that lymphatic stomata are present in the adult human pleura.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Anatomic Pathology, Tokyo Medical University , Tokyo, Japan .|5 Department of Pathology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine , Yokohama, Japan .
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oshiro
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Human Anatomy, Oita University , Oita, Japan .
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miura
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Anatomic Pathology, Tokyo Medical University , Tokyo, Japan .
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iobe
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Pathology, Nippon Dental University , Tokyo, Japan .
authors.forename: Tomoo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kudo
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Pathology, Nippon Dental University , Tokyo, Japan .
authors.forename: Yoshihito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimazu
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Pathology, Nippon Dental University , Tokyo, Japan .
authors.forename: Takaaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aoba
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Pathology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine , Yokohama, Japan .
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okudela
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Pathology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine , Yokohama, Japan .
authors.forename: Kiyotaka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagahama
authors.affiliation: 6 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine , Yokohama, Japan .
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakamaki
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Anatomic Pathology, Tokyo Medical University , Tokyo, Japan .
authors.forename: Maki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Anatomic Pathology, Tokyo Medical University , Tokyo, Japan .
authors.forename: Toshitaka
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagao
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Molecular Pathology, Tokyo Medical University , Tokyo, Japan .
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakaya
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Molecular Pathology, Tokyo Medical University , Tokyo, Japan .
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurata
authors.affiliation: 7 Department of Anatomy, University of Toyama Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences , Toyama, Japan .
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ohtani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001344:Autopsy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008022:Ligaments / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000166:cytology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008168:Lung / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000166:cytology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054048:Peritoneal Stomata / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000166:cytology / Q000648:ultrastructure