Comparative Morphometric Study of the Filiform Lingual Papilla in the Middle East Blind Mole Rat (Spalax ehrenbergi, Nehring, 1898) and Wistar Albino Rat

Abstract

This study aimed to reveal the morphometric differences between blind mole rats which live under ground and rats which live under laboratory conditions with regard to the length, base width, keratinization thickness and microscopic papilla depth. For this purpose, 7 adult blind mole rats and 7 adult Wistar albino rats were used in the study. All tongues were removed and fixed in 10 % neutral formalin. 4-5 micrometer of sections were obtained from paraffine sections which were obtained with routine histological follow ups and Crossman's modified triple staining was applied. While papilla length was found as 184.73 +/- 26.68 m m, base width 65.46 +/- 16.51 m m, keratinization thickness 11.60 +/- 1.37 m m, microscopic papilla depth 49.89 +/- 8.19 m m in blind rats; these values were found as 177.49 +/- 31.44 m m, 50.08 +/- 7.57 m m, 13.08 +/- 5.32 m m and 89.12 +/- 19.31 m m, respectively in rats. While a statistically significant difference was not detected between lengths (p> 0.05), the difference between papilla width was found significant (p< 0.05). While keratinization was found to be thicker on posterior side compared to anterior side in both species, a difference was not detected between keratinization thickness measurements (p> 0.05). The difference between two species with regard to papilla depth was detected to be significant (p< 0.001). The finding that papilla depth decreases as base width increases and the difference's being statistically significant suggested that living in different environments with different humidity could be effective on morphologic structures of the tongue in blind mole rats and rats.