A quantitative histological analysis of the effects of age and sex on human lingual epithelium.

After exclusion criteria had eliminated changes of pathological origin, tongues were obtained from 86 necropsies evenly divided by sex and age from 16-98 years. Epithelium was examined from two precisely defined sites on the lateral and dorsal lingual surfaces. Morphometric techniques were employed to determine various epithelial parameters. The epithelium was thicker in males but rates of ageing change between the sexes were similar. Generally, age changes were similar at each site: the mean epithelial thickness underwent a 30% reduction over the age range studied; the progenitor cell layer remained of constant thickness but its nuclear/cytoplasm ratio reduced significantly; significant reductions also occurred in the rete surface area of the lateral epithelium and in the papillary surface area of the dorsal epithelium. Although some of the parameters showed steeper rates of change in the younger half of the age range, the overall pattern of ageing in the lingual epithelium suggested a continuous trend towards atrophy and simplification of structure occurring evenly throughout the entire adult life span.