ヒト味覚神経の神経線維分析

概要

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Human gustatory nerves, such as chorda tympani, lingual nerve and sensory component of glossopharyngeal nerve innervate the tongue and play a role in taste, pain and other senses. The gustatory nerves are regarded as a particular sensory nervous system, but the size (diametor) and the distribution of nerve fibers in those gustatory nerves have been little understood, especially in human materials.We attempted to analyse the number, size and distribution of the representative human gustatory nerves— lingual, glossopharyngeal and chorda tympani, and to compare findings with those seen in motor nerves. The materials were obtained at the time of surgery; a part of the lingual nerve and the glossopharyngeal nerve from a 68 year old female suffering from lingual pain and the chorda tympani from a 6 year old child and 38 year old male with chronic otitis media. After the preparation of those materials by fixation and sectioning in the microtome, the nerve fibers were photographed, an the diameter measured and a count made of the total number of total nerve fibers. The result showed that the chorda tympani consisted of mainly small fibers (less than 4 microns) and the lingual nerve and the glossopharyngeal nerve included larger fibers (4-8 microns) as well as small fibers. Thus the gustatory nerves have a significantly different composition of nerve fibers as compared to motor nerve.
耳鼻咽喉科臨床学会の論文