Portuguese Version

Year:  2012  Vol. 78   Ed. 4 - (2º)

Carta ao Editor

Pages: 7 to 7

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Filiform papillae do not have taste buds

Author(s): Mehmet Fatih Sönmez¹; Esra Balcioglu²; Saim Ozdamar³; Birkan Yakan³

Keywords: rats, taste buds, tongue.

Numerous irregularities and mucosal bumps, known as tongue papillae, cover the dorsal surface of the anterior tongue region, all the way to the sulcus terminalis. There are four types of papillae, divided into: filiform, fungiform, circumvallate and foliated. Taste buds, which appear as oval shapes which look pale in histology sections, are present in the fungiform, foliated and circumvallate papillae, but not in the filiform1-4.

We were very excited to read the recent paper from Abreu et al. called "Histological and ultrastructural aspects of the tongue in undernourished rats5", showing that protein-energy malnutrition does not change the tongue mucosa of adult rats.

In the study from Abreu et al.5, vol. 72 nº 4, p. 523-7, the legend in Figure 3 reads: "Fungiform and filiform papillae, over which are the taste buds". However, filiform papillae do not have taste buds6. I would like to add that it may be useful to use arrows or asterisks to identify the structures in the pictures.


REFERENCES

1. Hamamichi R, Asano-Miyoshi M, Emori Y. Taste bud contains both short-lived and long-lived cell populations. Neuroscience. 2006;141(4):2129-38.

2. Miller IJ Jr, Smith DV. Quantitative taste bud distribution in the hamster. Physiol Behav. 1984;32(2):275-85.

3. Liu HC, Lee JC. Scanning electron microscopic and histochemical studies of foliate papillae in the rabbit, rat and mouse. Acta Anat (Basel). 1982;112(4):310-20.

4. Davies RO, Kare MR, Cagan RH. Distribution of taste buds on fungiform and circumvallate papillae of bovine tongue. Anat Rec. 1979;195(3):4436.

5. Abreu MAMM, Weckx LLM, Hirata CHW. Histological and ultrastructural aspects of the tongue in undernourished rats. Braz J Otorhinolaryngol. 2006;72(4):523-7.

6. Ross MH, Kaye GI, Pawlina W. Histology: A Test and Atlas with cell and molecular biology. 4^th ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2003. p.434-74.










1. Assistant Professor (Lecturer).
2. MSc (Assistant).
3. Professor (Lecturer).

Send correspondence to:
Mehmet Fatih Sönmez
Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes University
38039 Kayseri, Turkey
Tel: (+90) 352 - 4374901 x 23356. Fax: (+90) 352 - 4375285.

Paper submitted to the BJORL-SGP (Publishing Management System - Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology) on December 17, 2007.
Accepted on March 07, 2008. cod. 5631.

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