Morphologic characteristics of initial lymphatics of the healthy and diseased human gingiva

Investigation was performed on healthy and inflamed human gingivae. In the healthy mucosa lymphatic vessels generally appeared as flattened channels w ith a reduced lumen. Only in very inflamed tissue were some more evident ve ssels with a distended wall detectable. Ultrastructurally, most of the vess els had the characteristics of capillaries and they were delimited by a thi n and irregular endothelial wall with large intercellular spaces. These obs ervations indicate that in the gingival tissues, which are continuously exp osed to inflammatory agents and need a really efficient draining system, th e pathway of interstitial exudation and cell migration may include both the lymphatic vessel system and the intercellular spaces of the permeable junc tional epithelium. Anat Rec 255:175-179, 1999. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.