The article aims for description of glandular/lymphoid interactions within digestive tract over the postnatal ontogenesis which is of special importance for clinical immunology. We have examined lingual salivary glands obtained from 299 autopsies, using macroscopic and histological techniques. Their age ranged from newborns to senile individuals; both males and females were included. The biological material was sampled at the local pathology departments at the Moscow Bureau for Forensic and Medical Expertise, according to approval by Russian federal law (No. 323, art. 47, 4180-1, 355н). The cases with pathological changes of digestive system revealed upon autopsies were excluded from evaluation. The transverse tissue sections were stained with H&E and picro fuchsin by van Gieson technique.The minor salivary lingual and pharyngeal glands, being located in the depth of tongue and pharyngeal walls, perform an important endocrine function, i.e they participate in oral immunity responses. A lot of publications concerns regenerative changes of oral mucosa caused by secretory IgA which plays a main role in regulation of local immunity. The article describes important age-dependent changes of both lingual and pharyngeal minor salivary glands. Typical scarcity of the glands in childhood may be caused by the uniform nutrition at this age, whereas decreased secretory IgA production, is generally leading to development of common inflammatory events in the oropharyngeal area. With increasing age, the glandular apertures become wider and more numerous, thus leading to increased local immunity in oral cavity and oropharynx. Sufficient involutional changes are observed in old and senile age cohorts, accompanied by diminished secretory IgA production, and, respectively, by decreased indexes of local and humoral immunity. These results are entirely reflecting topographical interrelations between the glands and lymphoid cells, and appropriate data are quite important for clinical immunology.

Tongue provides a person with many functions, participates in speech, taste receptions (the peripheral part of the taste analyzer), the initial stages of digestion and moisturizes the mucous membrane of the oral cavity. The lingual glands, along with others, produce saliva, but in a smalt amount, in comparison with the large salivary glands. The purpose of the study is to study the number of lingual glands and their morphological features in people of different ages and sex under normal conditions. Macroscopic, histological methods and parametric statistics methods have been used to study the glands of the tongue, obtained from the corpses of 149 men and 150 women who died from the period of the newborn to 96 years, for reasons of asphyxia incompatible with the life of injuries. On total preparations of the tongue, the glands were electrically stained in a 0.5% solution of acetic acid with 0,05% methylene blue solution in tap water. We studied the total number, length and width of the initial sections of the glands of different parts of the tongue - at its anterior, middle and posterior third, and also in the organ as a whole. For histological examination, the gland was further studied on preparations obtained after evisceration (139 cases). As a result of the study, it was revealed that the size and quantity of lingual glands in postnatal ontogenesis vary in the direction from the tip to the root of the tongue (increase from front to back). In this case, the glands of the root of the tongue produced a saliva of a mucous nature. Given that ensuring the oral phase of swallowing requires the presence of a mucous secretion in the oral cavity, the morphological changes of lingual glands in the thickness of the tongue revealed by us are absolutely physiologically necessary. Changing the size and number of glands throughout the mucous membranes of internal organs is recognized as one of the patterns of their structural organization.

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