The human vomeronasal organ. III. Postnatal development from infancy to the ninth decade

The large literature on the human vomeronasal organ (VNO) offers little con sensus as to its persistence in the adult. We have already documented the e xistence of the VNO from embryonic day 33 through the neonatal stages. This has now been extended to human adults: 27 cadaver nasal septa, aged 2-86 y , were either dissected or decalcified, serially sectioned, stained and exa mined. The consistent presence of the VNO is reported as a homologue, in th e form of a duct-like structure on the nasal septum at all ages. Also repor ted are size variability, pronounced bilateral asymmetry, a nonchemosensory pseudostratified ciliated epithelium with considerable structural variatio n and generally without medial-lateral differentiation, nasal septal glands opening into the VNO lumen, a lack of correlation between postnatal age an d VNO size. visualisation of the human VNO with certainty by histological m eans alone, and a minute opening as its only visible surface feature. The h uman VNO is a discrete structure that should not be confused with the nasop alatine fossa, the septal mucosal pits or VNO openings.