Differentiation in normal human buccal mucosa epithelium
Landay, M.A.; Schroeder, H.E.
Journal of Anatomy 128(Pt 1): 31-51
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-8782 PMID: 422483 Document Number: 146194
To supplement recent data describing stereologically the epithelium of normal human buccal mucosa, this tissue was structurally reexamined by EM and light microscopy and by additional stereological precedures. Biopsies (20) of human buccal mucosa were collected from the left cheek of 10-15 yr old healthy females. These specimens were fixed, Epon-embedded, and processed for EM and light microscopy. Morphometric point counting procedures were employed to estimate the surface-density of epithelial cells in a 200 um broad surface layer of 9 biopsies. There is apparently a dense and regular papillary body of slender connective tissue papillae which bifurcate in and penetrate the basal 2/3 of the epithelium. The epithelium is comprised of 2 major cell compartments, namely the formative and proliferating basal and suprabasal cells, and the differentiated but maturing spinous, and the subsurface and surface cells. The major step in differentiation occurs at the boundary between suprabasal and lower spinous cells. Cytoplasmatic composition is a reliable indicator of differentiation, which occurs prior to cell flattening. The relative density of filamentous networks is an indicator of maturation while cell flattening may be the sign of adaptation to functional needs, i.e., distensibility.