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The human vomeronasal organ. III. Postnatal development from infancy to the ninth decade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2001

KUNWAR P. BHATNAGAR
Affiliation:
Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, University of Louisville, KY
TIMOTHY D. SMITH
Affiliation:
School of Physical Therapy, Slippery Rock University, PA, USA
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Abstract

The large literature on the human vomeronasal organ (VNO) offers little consensus as to its persistence in the adult. We have already documented the existence of the VNO from embryonic day 33 through the neonatal stages. This has now been extended to human adults: 27 cadaver nasal septa, aged 2–86 y, were either dissected or decalcified, serially sectioned, stained and examined. The consistent presence of the VNO is reported as a homologue, in the form of a duct-like structure on the nasal septum at all ages. Also reported are size variability, pronounced bilateral asymmetry, a nonchemosensory pseudostratified ciliated epithelium with considerable structural variation and generally without medial–lateral differentiation, nasal septal glands opening into the VNO lumen, a lack of correlation between postnatal age and VNO size, visualisation of the human VNO with certainty by histological means alone, and a minute opening as its only visible surface feature. The human VNO is a discrete structure that should not be confused with the nasopalatine fossa, the septal mucosal pits or VNO openings.

Type
Paper
Copyright
© Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2001

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