[Microscopic innervation and vascularization of the tongue. General study]

Our study deals with 23 prenatal human tongues, and a comparative study was carried out on one neonatal tongue and a few human and animal postnatal tongues. Sagittal and coronal sections were stained with various techniques. After the 7th week, the development of the nerves and their relationships with the neighboring structures can be observed. There are very few capillaries making up the superficial vascular network under the epithelium. The vessels whose walls are beginning to develop include the future red blood cells with their basophilic nuclei. During the whole process of evolution, there is a tight correlation between the collagen fibers and the neighboring structures. The innervation and vascularization--the latter with changes in the vascular walls--progressively increase. A short time before birth, the nerve fibers include their characteristic components, except for the Schmidt-Lantermann fissures. A considerable innervation advances towards the papillae, and anterior and posterior nerve networks enter the papillae, whose connective tissue includes groups of corpuscles on serial sections.