[The microscopic anatomy of the human pharyngeal tonsil in the postnatal period of ontogeny].

Histological sections of the pharyngeal tonsil (PhT) have been investigated in 55 corpses of persons of both sex and various age, that had no disease connected with lesions of the PhT by the time of their death. The aim of the work is to determine relative areas of each structural element of the PhT in comparison to the whole section area taken as 100%. The PhT lymphoid tissue reached its maximal relative development at the first childhood. Then the lymphoid tissue area in the PhT histological sections decreases gradually, making already in the second mature age one half of the tonsil section area, and in the elderly age--nearly one-fourth. The decrease of the relative lymphoid tissue area takes place at the expense of decreasing area of the lymphoid nodules. The relative area of the connective stroma increases inversely to the relative decrease of the lymphoid tissue area parameters. The germinative centers in the lymphoid nodules are absent in newborns and old persons. The greatest value of the relative area of the germinative centers falls to the early infancy. The lymphoid nodules with the germinative centers, according to their relative area during all age periods, besides the newborn period, the second mature, elderly and old age periods, essentially exceed the area, that occupy the nodules without the germinative centers on the PhT sections.