Original scientific paper
Differentiation of Epiglottal Epithelia during Prenatal and Postnatal Human Development
Gordana Jurić-Lekić
Vedran Radujković
Valentina Kancijan
Floriana Bulić-Jakuš
Vedran Lokošek
Ana Katušić
Maja Vlahović
Ljiljana Šerman
Abstract
Differentiation of epiglottal epithelia during human development was for the first time investigated by the light microscopy
and documented in celoidine collection of human embryos from the Archive of the Department of Histology and
Embryology, School of Medicine University of Zagreb, Croatia. At 6 weeks epiglottal swelling was found to be covered by
a simple squamous epithelium consisting of a single layer of cells. At 8 weeks epithelium changed to a two-layered
cuboidal epithelium which at the end of the 8th week transformed to multilayered columnar epithelium without cilia and
goblet cells. In the one-day-old newborn, the majority of epiglottis was found to be covered by the mature ciliated columnar
pseudostratified epithelium with goblet cells while only a minor part of the oral surface next to the tongue by the
stratified squamous epithelium. This unexpected finding is in contrast to the domination of the stratified squamous epithelium
found at the age of 13 years and in 35-years-old adult. Reversal of proportion covered by different types of
epithelia between birth and puberty /adulthood is probably connected to the establishment of the air-flow which could be
stimulating for differentiation of stratified squamous epithelium.
Keywords
epiglottis; human; development; epithelium
Hrčak ID:
34286
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2008.
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