• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.295-303
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• 2008

The lingual branch of the trigeminal nerve transmitts general sensation from anterior two thirds of the tongue, also bearing within sheath fibers of chordal tympani branch of the facial nerve. Chorda tympani nerve carries special taste sensations from the anterior two thirds of the tongue and sub-serves the existing trigeminal pathway. Chorda tympani nerve and the lingual nerve innervate to fungiform papilla and distribution of fungiform papilla on tongue dorsum is variable according to anatomical location. The purpose of this report is to assess that the relationship of the number of fungiform papilla and the ability of two-point discrimination of tongu dorsum. Twenty-six healthy students(male:female=13:13) whose mean age was $30{\pm}3$ participated in our study. Two-point discrimination thresholds were measured to evaluate the spatial acuity of touch sensation. The measurement was carried out at the tip and posterolateral region of dorsal tongue. After two-point discrimination test, we took the pictures of their dorsal tongue dyed with methylene blue with digital camera. There were no significant differences between the number of fungiform papilla and the two-point discrimination threshold. But, we found that there were the intraregional and intersubject variations of spatial acuity of the tongue. During the test on the posterolateral region of the dorsal tongue, students appealed the difficulty of discrimination of one point and two point.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.255-264
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• 1996

This studies were carried out to identify the characteristics of the tongue of Korean native goat(Capra hircus) by macroscopy, microscopy and scanning microscopy. Korean native goat had torus linguae, median lingual sulcus, lingual fossa and ventral median fissure but did not have glossoepiglottic fold and terminal sulcus in the tongue. The whole length of tongue was $11.51{\pm}0.76cm$. The length of tongue apex, tongue body, tongue root and the torus linguae were $2.62{\pm}0.28$, $7.39{\pm}0.27$, $1.56{\pm}0.26$ and $6.37{\pm}0.29cm$, respectively. The width of tongue apex, torus linguae and tongue root were $3.41{\pm}0.24$, $3.74{\pm}0.29$ and $3.68{\pm}0.11$, respectively. The thickness of tongue apex was $1.60{\pm}0.10$, and the height of torus linguae was $1.52{\pm}0.15cm$. Filiform papillae were present at the tongue apex and the tongue body rostral to torus linguae. Fungiform papillae were scattered from tongue apex to rostral portion of torus linguae, being in abundance at the tongue apex. Vallate papillae were showed at the lateral portion of torus linguae, while lentiform papillae were present at its central portion. Conical papillae were located between vallate and lentiform papillae. The numbers of filiform, fungiform, conical, vallate and lentiform papillae were $46,980{\pm}1070.98$, $446.8{\pm}36.97$, $818.4{\pm}43.99$, $34.8{\pm}2.77$, and $255.6{\pm}39.30$, respectively. The average numbers of taste bud were $8.3{\pm}2.04$ in a fungiform papilla and $247.3{\pm}37.44$ in a vallate papilla. The filiform papilla had secondary and tertiary papillae. The height of filiform papilla was about $150{\mu}m$ and the diameter was $100{\mu}m$. The diameters of fungiform papillae were 350 to $550{\mu}m$. The long and short diameters of maximum-sized lentiform papilla were 4000 and $3000{\mu}m$, respectively, while those of minimum-sized papilla were 700 and $600{\mu}m$, respectively. The height of conical papillae was 450 to $600{\mu}m$ and diameter was 250 to $450{\mu}m$. The vallate papilla was round or oval in shape and its diameter was 500 to $850{\mu}m$. It had well-developed papillary groove around itself. The modified conical papillae were not observed in the tongue of Korean native goat.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2016

The tongue has 4 kinds of papillae, which are filiform, fungiform (FU), foliate (FO) and circumvallate papilla (CV). Tongue papillae except filiform papilla include taste buds. The papillae differ in taste sensitivities, likely due to differential expression of taste receptors. In this study, we evaluated differences in the expression levels of taste receptors in FU, FO and CV. Male DBA2 mice, 42-60 days old, were used in the study. Messenger RNAs were extracted from the murine epithelial tissues including FU, FO and CV. Cloned DNAs were synthesized by reverse transcription. Quantitative PCRs (qPCRs) were performed to determine mRNA expression levels of taste receptors. Results of qPCR revealed that the relative expression levels and patterns were different among FU, FO and CV. All three type 1 taste receptors were expressed FU, FO and CV at varying relative expression levels. All 35 kinds of type 2 taste receptors showed higher expression in FO and CV than in FU. Tas2r108 and Tas2r137 showed the two highest expression levels in all tested papillae. The differential expression levels and patterns of taste receptors among the three papillae could contribute to the different physiological sensitivities by tongue areas. Additional studies such as in situ hybridization or taste receptor cell activity recording is necessary to elucidate the functional relationship between expression levels of taste receptors and taste sensitivity.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.515-525
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• 2005

Purpose of study: Lingual nerve damage can be caused by surgery or trauma such as physical irriatation, radiation, chemotherapy, infection and viral infection. Once nerve damage occurred, patients sometimes complain taste change and loss of taste along with serious disturbance of tongue. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of unilateral lingual nerve transection on taste as well as on the maintenance of taste buds. Materials & Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 220-250g received unilateral transection of lingual nerve, subjected to the preference test for various taste solutions (0.1M NaCl, 0.1M sucrose, 0.01M QHCl, or 0.01M HCl) with two bottle test paradigm at 2, 4, 6, or 8 weeks after the operation. Tongue was fixed with 8% paraformaldehyde. After fixation, they were observed with scanning electron microscope(JSM-$840A^{(R)}$, JEOL, JAPAN) and counted the number of the dorsal surface of the fungiform papilla for changes of fungiform papilla. And, Fungiform papilla were obtained from coronal sections of the anterior tongue(cryosection). After cryosection, immunostaining with $G{\alpha}gust$(I-20)(Santa Cruz Biotechnology, USA), $PLC{\beta}2$(Q-15)(Santa Cruz Biotechnology, USA), and $T_1R_1$(Alpha Diagnostic International, USA) were done. Immunofluorescence of labeled taste bud cells was examined by confocal microscopy(F92-$300^{(R)}$, Olympus, JAPAN). Results: The preference score for salty and sweet tended to be higher in the operated rats with statistical significance, compared to the sham rats. Fungiform papilla counting were decreased after lingual nerve transaction. In 2 weeks, maximum differences occurred. Gustducin and $T_1R_1$ expressions of taste receptor in 2 and 4 weeks were decreased. $PLC{\beta}2$ were not expressed in both experimental and control group. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the taste recognition for sweet and salty taste changed by week 2 and 4 after unilateral lingual nerve transection. However, regeneration related taste was occurred in the presence of preserving mesoneurial tissue and the time was 6 weeks. Our results demonstrated that unilateral lingual nerve damage caused morphological and numerical change of fungiform papilla. It should be noted in our study that lingual nerve transection resulted in not only morphological and numerical change but also functional change of fungiform papillae.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.22 no.12 s.187
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• pp.1083-1089
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• 1984

As a study to elucidate whether taste buds contain specific proteins, rat dorsal lingual epithelium was analysed by electrophoresis. The epithelium of the vallate papilla (with numerous taste buds), the area of the fungiform papilla 9with a few taste buds), and the area between vallate papilla and large filiform papilla (not containing taste buds) were strippled off by treatment with 0.7% EDTA. The epithelial protein was extracted by 1% SDS and 1% Mercaptoethanol in 0.01M phosphate buffer (pH7.2). Extracts were analysed by disc SDS-PAGE. Because the patterns of protein composition from each site were similar with each other as a whole, it is concluded that taste buds do not contain specific protein detected by SDS-PAGE in adult rat. But a protein on M.W. 49000 which lies in the area of molecular weight of keratin molecules was found only in the epithelium containing taste buds. This results suggested that the epithelium containing taste buds differentiate dissimilarly to the epithelium not containing taste buds.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.267-276
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• 2009

A SEM study on morphology of lingual papillae of Korean long-fingered bat (Miniopterus schreibersi fuliginosus) and Savi's Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus savii) was conducted. Three kinds of lingual papillae were observed: filiform, fungiform, circumvallate papillae. Filiform papillae were divided into two types; the type 1 had a group of needle-like projections, and was distributed throughout the front half of the tongue; the type 2 had a smooth and thick body, and was found in rear half of the tongue. 35 to 45 fungiform papillae were found on the dorsal surface of the tongue in both species. They were observed along the lateral margins and were also found on front and rear end part of the tongue. There were two to three noticeably large fungiform papillae arranged in a straight line on the region between lingual prominence and circumvallate papillae. There were two circumvallate papillae close to the rear end of the tongue. They were large and round, each having two layers of pads. The overall morphology of lingual papillae of M. schreibersi fuliginosus and P. savii was found to be similar with other Chiroptera. However, few but noticeable differences were found among the filiform papillae and fungiform papillae. Type 2 filiform papillae differed in that bifid and trifid configuration were found in M. schreibersi fulginosus unlike in P. savii. In addition, numbers of large fungiform papillae located in the center of posterior region of the tongue were different with M. schreibersi have three while P. savii having only two.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.375-395
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• 2006

Purpose: Lingual nerve (LN) damage may be caused by either tumor resection or injury such as wisdom tooth extraction, Although autologous nerve graft is sometimes used to repair the damaged nerve, it has the disadvantage of necessity of another operation for nerve harvesting. Moreover, the results of nerve grafting is not satisfactory. The nerve growth factor (NGF) is well-known to play a critical role in peripheral nerve regeneration and its local delivery to the injured nerve has been continuously tried to enhance nerve regeneration. However, its application has limitations like repeated administration due to short half life of 30 minutes and an in vivo delivery model must allow for direct and local delivery. The aim of this study was to construct a well-functioning $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus for the ultimate development of improved method to promote peripheral nerve regeneration with enhanced and extended secretion of hNGF from the injured nerve by injecting $rhNGF-{\beta}$ gene directly into crush-injured LN in rat model. Materials and Methods: $hNGF-{\beta}$ gene was prepared from fetal brain cDNA library and cloned into E1/E3 deleted adenoviral vector which contains green fluorescence protein (GFP) gene as a reporter. After large scale production and purification of $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus, transfection efficiency and its expression at various cells (primary cultured Schwann cells, HEK293 cells, Schwann cell lines, NIH3T3 and CRH cells) were evaluated by fluorescent microscopy, RT-PCR, ELISA, immunocytochemistry. Furthermore, the function of rhNGF-beta, which was secreted from various cells infected with $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus, was evaluated using neuritogenesis of PC-12 cells. For in vivo evaluation of efficacy of $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus, the LNs of 8-week old rats were exposed and crush-injured with a small hemostat for 10 seconds. After the injury, $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus($2{\mu}l,\;1.5{\times}10^{11}pfu$) or saline was administered into the crushed site in the experimental (n=24) and the control group (n=24), respectively. Sham operation of another group of rats (n=9) was performed without administration of either saline or adenovirus. The taste recovery and the change of fungiform papilla were studied at 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks. Each of the 6 animals was tested with different solutions (0.1M NaCl, 0.1M sucrose, 0.01M QHCl, or 0.01M HCl) by two-bottle test paradigm and the number of papilla was counted using SEM picture of tongue dorsum. LN was explored at the same interval as taste study and evaluated electro-physiologically (peak voltage and nerve conduction velocity) and histomorphometrically (axon count, myelin thickness). Results: The recombinant adenovirus vector carrying $rhNGF-{\beta}$ was constructed and confirmed by restriction endonuclease analysis and DNA sequence analysis. GFP expression was observed in 90% of $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus infected cells compared with uninfected cells. Total mRNA isolated from $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus infected cells showed strong RT-PCR band, however uninfected or LacZ recombinant adenovirus infected cells did not. NGF quantification by ELISA showed a maximal release of $18865.4{\pm}310.9pg/ml$ NGF at the 4th day and stably continued till 14 days by $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus infected Schwann cells. PC-12 cells exposed to media with $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus infected Schwann cell revealed at the same level of neurite-extension as the commercial NGF did. $rhNGF-{\beta}$ adenovirus injected experimental groups in comparison to the control group exhibited different taste preference ratio. Salty, sweet and sour taste preference ratio were significantly different after 2 weeks from the beginning of the experiment, which were similar to the sham group, but not to the control group.