Table 1.
Characteristics of animals used in the experiments.
Table 2.
Overview of histological features of oral mucosae.
Fig 1.
Histology of the ventral surface of the tongue from rodents, non-rodent species and humans.
Representative photomicrographs of mucosal (i.e. ventral surface of the tongue) tissue sections (magnification x400 for animal species and x200/x400 for human) embedded in paraffin and stained with Hematoxylin-Eosin (HE) are shown.
Fig 2.
Detection of glycogen in the oral mucosae of mice, minipigs, monkeys and humans.
Representative photomicrographs of mucosal (i.e. ventral surface of the tongue, mouth floor or cheek as indicated in the figure) tissue sections (magnification x400) embedded in paraffin and stained with PAS and PAS diastase are shown.
Fig 3.
Collagen fibers density in the mucosa of the ventral surface of tongues from rodents, non-rodent species and humans.
Representative photomicrographs of mucosal (i.e. ventral surface of the tongue) tissue sections (magnification x200) embedded in paraffin and stained with Masson trichrome are shown.
Fig 4.
Mapping of immune cells in the ventral surface of tongues from rats, dogs, minipigs and monkeys.
Mucosal tissues from animal species were processed for immunohistology analysis, as described in Methods. Slides were stained with the following specific antibodies: anti-MHC-II, anti-CD163, anti-CD172a, anti-CD3, and anti-CD4 to detect and quantify positive cells in tissue sections or with toluidine blue to quantify mast cells (magnification x200). Representative photomicrographs of mucosal tissue sections are shown.
Fig 5.
Quantification of immune cells in the ventral surface of the tongue, the mouth floor and the cheek from rats, dogs, minipigs and monkeys.
Mucosal tissues from animal species were processed for immunohistology analysis, as described in Methods. Cell counting was performed on slides labeled with Abs specific for APC (anti-MHC-II, anti-CD163, anti-CD172a) and T cell (anti-CD3 and anti-CD4) markers or stained with toluidine blue for mast cells to evaluate the mean number of positive cells per field using a light microscope (magnification x400). All areas (epithelium (Epith.), Lamina propria (LP) and muscle) were scored. Histograms represent the mean + SEM with n = 3.