The postnatal changes in the density of sensory nerve endings in the oral mucosa of the cat

Abstract

The changes that occur in the distribution and density of the encapsulated endings and Merkel cell-neurite complexes of the lingual gingival and alveolar mucosa of the mandible of kittens from birth to 28 d of age were observed through the use of methylene blue vital staining. The distribution of encapsulated endings showed a tendency to increase over the total area of the mucosae, but Merkel cell-neurite complexes tended to group into bands across the gingivae. While the density of the nerve endings of the former showed a continuous increase over the time period from the day of birth, when they totalled 13/cm2, to the 28th d by which that figure had increased to 144/cm2, the latter showed no such marked increase, totalling only 35/cm2 and 50/cm2, respectively. Further observations were made of the ultrastructures of organized endings in adult cat.