ABSTRACT
Background: The tonsils are important structure for immunological functions and are composed of nasopharyngeal and palatine tonsils. They bear a varying degree of antigenic insult
Objective: To compare the reticular epithelium and underlying high endothelial venules of human nasopharyngeal and palatine tonsils
Material and Methods: This was a comparative cross sectional study, conducted in the Anatomy department of CPSP regional centre, Islamabad, Pakistan from January to December 2005. Thirty samples each of human nasopha ryngeal, right palatine and left palatine tonsils were collected by convenience sampling technique. Haematoxylin and eosin stained paraffin sections were examined for patches of reticular epithelium. Distance between the patches was measured and high endothelial venules in the subepithelial compartments were calculated
Results: The reticular epithelium had same structure in both tonsils. The distance between two patches was 181.18 +/- 17.83 micro min nasopharyngeal and 726.01 +/- 48.89 micro m in palatine tonsils. Comparison yielded significant statistical difference [P=0.000]. The mean counts of high endothelia l venules in lymphoid compartments beneath these patches of nasopharyngeal and palatine tonsils were 2.19 +/- 0.1 and 1.85 +/- 0.12 respectively with non significant statistical difference [P=0.075]
Conclusion: The results suggested that although the degree of reactivity of reticular epithelium in both types of tonsils might be similar, but the nasopharyngeal tonsil may react to antigenic stimulus more rapidly as compared to palatine tonsil by virtue of more frequent reticulation of epithelium on mucosal surface of former compared to later