Tree of Vater–Pacinian corpuscles in the human finger and thumb: a comparison between the late fetal stage and old age

Abstract

Using histological sections of 12 hands from 12 human fetuses at 20-34 weeks of gestation (150-290 mm) and 14 fingers (index and small) from seven donated cadavers of elderly individuals (aged 78-95 years), we compared the features of Vater-Pacinian corpuscles between these two stages of life. Corpuscles with thin, tightly packed lamellae appeared to undergo a change to thick, loosely packed lamellae at 23-32 weeks. The typical fetal corpuscle had two parts: (1) a rod-like proximal part (0.2-0.6 mm in length) extending along the proximodistal axis of the finger, and (2) a distal end (0.1 mm) after acute bending of the proximal part. Corpuscles were associated with palmar digital nerves in the fingers, but were also present along the dorsal nerves in the thumb. A flower bouquet- or tree-like arrangement including 5-10 corpuscles extended to the dermis of the skin along a perforating artery. Serial sections of the thumb and fifth finger revealed approximately 80-180 corpuscles in the distal phalangeal segment. In elderly individuals, the corpuscles were distributed along the palmar digital nerve, but (1) their density was much lower than in fetuses and (2) a bouquet- or tree-like arrangement was rarely seen. In the distal segment, there were fewer than 40 adult corpuscles, being 0.2-0.5 mm thick and 1.0-2.5 mm long. Wavy or coiled corpuscles were evident. Because of the considerable differences in the distribution and number of corpuscles between the fetus and adult, they appear to undergo considerable depletion with age, especially along thin, superficial nerve branches.

Tactile innervation densities across the whole body

“…Dissection of the whole hand of several old-age human cadavers has found around 300 corpuscles per hand (Stark et al 1998). A more recent count in several distal finger segments yielded proportionally higher numbers (around 40 corpuscles per segment), but these counts were still much lower than those in fetal tissue (Kobayashi et al 2018). Taken together, these results suggest a dramatic decrease in the number of Pacinian corpuscles with age, but it is unclear whether this decrease takes place early during development or later in life, or whether it is spread out across the lifetime.…”

Arteriovenous Anastomosis in Human Hand Digital Skin

“…Most sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) or Elastica Masson, while some were used for immunohistochemistry (see the paragraph below). The sections used for routine histology had already been used in another study 8) . Each pair of attached arteriole and venule identified by HE or Elastica Masson staining was subsequently also subjected to immunostaining of its serial sections.…”

“…In a recent study by this group on digital Pacinian corpuscles using routine histological examination of specimens obtained from adults 8) , an arterial lumen was sometimes found to actually open on to, or communicate with, a venous lumen in the so-called glomera. The structure of a glomus is complex.…”

Pathomorphological Changes in Vater-Pacinian Corpuscles in Palmar Fascial Fibromatosis Depending on the Dupuytren’s Contracture Degree

“…Последующие исследования увеличили неопределенность представлений о морфологических характеристиках телец Фатер-Пачини в норме и у пациентов с контрактурой Дюпюитрена. Данные о размерах телец Фатер-Пачини в пальцах здоровых людей противоречивы: по данным ряда авторов, они имели длину 1,5 мм и ширину 0,78 мм [15], 1,0-2,5 мм и 0,2-0,5 мм [16], размеры варьировали от 2×1 до 5×5 мм [17]. По данным других авторов, диаметры телец колебались от 1,0 до 5,0 мм [14], от 0,8 до 2,2 мм (средний поперечный диаметр составлял 1,40±0,23 мм) [18].…”