Evidence for accessory chemosensory cells in the adult human nasal cavity.

Autor: Gebhart VM; Institute of Anatomy II, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany. Electronic address: Veronika.Gebhart@med.uni-jena.de., Rodewald A; Institute of Anatomy II, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany., Wollbaum E; Institute of Anatomy I, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany., Hertel K; Institute of Pathology, HELIOS Klinikum, Erfurt, Germany., Bitter T; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany., Jirikowski GF; Institute of Anatomy II, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of chemical neuroanatomy [J Chem Neuroanat] 2019 Dec 23; Vol. 104, pp. 101732. Date of Electronic Publication: 2019 Dec 23.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jchemneu.2019.101732
Abstrakt: The existence of functionally relevant accessory olfactory organs in humans is still a matter of controversy. A vomeronasal organ (VNO) with sensory and non-sensory epithelia exists only in macrosmatic mammals. A similar structure is regularly observed in humans during fetal development. The postnatal persistence of a VNO like epithelial duct has been described in about 10 %. Here we studied tissue samples of nasal mucosa from adults. In all individuals we found epithelial cells in the lower part of the nasal septum which exhibited morphological features of sensory neurons and which showed immunostaining for olfactory marker protein OMP. These cells were interposed by ciliated cells, goblet cells and small intraepithelial capillaries. Only occasionally we found such cells within a morphologically defined epithelial duct. A clear separation of sensory and non-sensory epithelia could not be observed. In most cases we found OMP positive groups of cells either in epithelial cavities or just embedded in respiratory epithelium. With RT-PCR we could confirm the presence of OMP encoding mRNA thus supporting the idea of intrinsic expression of this protein in the nasal mucosa. We conclude that accessory chemosensory structures are regularly conserved in adult humans in the approximate anatomical location of the VNO of microsmatic animals. Their functional importance is yet to be determined.
(Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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