Hairlike variations of filiform papillae in the human tongue

Scanning electron microscopic study of oral leukoplakia*

“…Scanning electron microscopy was first applied in the field of dentistry by Boyde & Stewart (1962), and the first comparative transmission and scanning electron microscopic study of human fetal skin and oral mucosa was that of Whittaker & Adams (1971). Both normal and abnormal adult oral mucosa have been studied by many authors (Svejda & Janota 1974, Schenk & Wersall 1975, Matsumoto et al 1976, Svejda et al, 1977, Rudelt & Peters 1978. This method is now widely used in the field of oral pathology, Leukoplakia of the oral mucosa was first studied by scanning electron microscopy by Morgenroth & Morgenroth (1970a, b), later by Schenk (1975) and Matsumoto et al, (1976), They stated that the cytoplasmic projections of superficial epithelial cells, observed by transmission electron microscopy, appear irregular and rough by scanning electron microscopy in cases of leukoplakia, dysplasia and carcinoma, Morgenroth & Morgenroth (1970b) were the only investigators who tried to differentiate structural alterations in the different clinical types of severe leukoplakia (grades III and IV).…”

Electron Microscopic Characterization of Filiform Papillae in the Normal Human Tongue.

“…The morphological features of the dorsal surface of the human tongue have been hitherto examined primarily using light and scanning electron microscopy (SVEJDA and SKACH, 1975;DOUROV,1984;KULLAA-MIKKONEN and SORVARI,1985). Whereas detailed descriptions of other parts of human oral mucosa epithelia, such as the buccal mucosa, have been reported at the transmission electron microscopic level (HASHIMOTO et al, 1966;SILVERMAN 1967), there is little basic information available on the characterization of the normal human lingual epithelia at this level (LEE, 1973;SVEJDA et al, 1977;BOSHELL et al, 1980a).…”

Histochemistry of the tongue epithelium in four mammals with respect to keratinization

“…In human infants and a few adults the limb horny layers form confluent filiform projections at the papillary apices. Differences in keratinization of anterior and posterior limbs occur, as they do in rats and mice, with eosinophilic cytoplasmic granules confined to the anterior limb transitional cells (Spearman, 1980;Lee, 1973;Svejda et al, 1977;Schenk & Wersall, 1975).…”

“…Perhaps for many species the selective advantages in the phylogeny of these papillae are low and particular types of papillae have been established fortuitously. Thus, the small number of human adults with infantile hair-like filiform papillae do not appear to suffer any disadvantage (Svejda et al, 1977).…”

“…The lingual histology in domestic and laboratory species was considered by Trautmann & Fiebiger (1 960) and Hoffman (1961). The human tongue epithelium was dealt with by Schumacher (1927), Pruvenza (1964) and by Svejda et al (1977), but as mentioned by Spearman (1980) the difficulty of obtaining specimens of fresh normal tongue has precluded cytochemical investigation, although ultrastructural investigations were carried out on foetal tongue by Schenk & Wersall (1 975).…”