[A study on the tonsil with focal infections--with special reference to the newly devised tonsillar cryptscope and...

It is well known that inflamed human palatine tonsils have many surface crypts showing characteristic lymphoepithelial symbiosis, which play an important role in immune response. The cryptepithelia are rich in blood vessels. This proliferation of blood vessels is said to be the initiation of various kinds of immune responses. We devised a tonsillar cryptscope in order to observe the tonsillar crypt. Scopy with the cryptscope confirmed seven characteristic types of capillary vessels. The cryptscopic figures showed different patterns in tonsillar diseases such as hypertrophic tonsil, recurrent tonsillitis and tonsil with focal infection (palmoplantar pustulosis and psoriasis vulgaris). In this study the significances of tonsillar cryptscopic figures were investigated through the study of three dimensional structures of blood vessels and immuno-histology. In order to understand the structure of capillary vessels in details, human palatine tonsils were studied using corrosion casting techniques with a scanning electron microscope. Horseshoe type capillary vessels corresponded to the curved capillary vessels in the epithelium. This type of capillary vessel was observed in the epithelia covering the interfollicular area. The tonsillar blood vessels, along with closely related substances in the epithelium and the parenchyma, were immuno-histologically examined. Where the lymphocytes had densely infiltrated the epithelium, the basement membrane became thickened and often disrupted; the endothelial cells were also enlarged. Adrian et al reported that lymphocytes invaded from the capillary vessels within the epithelia. Thus it was suggested that the horseshoe type was related to lymphocyte invasion of the epithelia.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)