Summary
The epithelium of intact guinea pig palate was subjected to stereologic analysis in a study of structural alterations in the keratinizing epithelium in response to wounding. Point counting procedures were employed to analyse electron micrographs sampled from three epithelial strata in biopsies collected from five animals. The differentiation pattern of the guinea pig palate epithelium displayed the following structural density gradients from basal to granular layers: descending gradients of metabolically active organelles, ascending gradient of bundled filaments coupled with the appearence of membrane coating granules and keratohyalin granules, and a plateau-like gradient of cytoplasmic ground substance. This pattern of epithelial differentiation is basically identical to that of human hard palate epithelium and epidermis. Regional and species variations in structure of keratinizing epithelia are suggested based on interepithelial differences in morphometric parameters.
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This investigation was supported in part by grant No. 512-4064 from the Danish State Medical Research Council and by a grant from the Calcin Foundation.
The data recording and computation was performed on a guest visit at the Dental Institute, University of Zürich.
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Andersen, L., Schroeder, H.E. Quantitative analysis of squamous epithelium of normal palatal mucosa in guinea pigs. Cell Tissue Res. 190, 223–233 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00218171
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00218171