The intra-lingual course of the nerves of the tongue.

The intra-lingual course of the nerves of tongue has never been studied in the human by the Sihler method. This technique was applied to six human tongues and allowed coloration of the nerves and illustration of the tongue. The course of the hypoglossal, glossopharyngeal, and lingual nerves was defined. Constant anastomoses between the lingual and hypoglossal nerves, between the glossopharyngeal nerve and the hypoglossal and lingual nerves, were demonstrated and may help explain the "neck-tongue" syndrome. This cartography of the nerves of the tongue allowed the definition of the motor and sensory consequences of tongue surgery.

[Aging and spermatogenesis: an histologic, cytogenetic and apoptosis study]. / Influence du vieillissement sur la spermatogenèse: évaluation histologique, risque chromosomique et apoptose des spermatozoïdes.

OBJECTIVE: The increase of frequency of Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) for elder men raises the question of the genetic risk for the offspring. Our aim was to evaluate the influence of ageing on the testicular histology, the aneuploidy rate in testis postmeiotic cells and the DNA fragmentation in sperm. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a histomorphometric study of 36 men aged from 61 to 102 years and 10 young men from 29 to 40 years. The aneuploidy rate was evaluated by fluorescent in situ hybridation (FISH X, Y, 18) and DNA fragmentation in spermatozoa was evaluated by TUNEL. RESULTS: Histomorphometry showed various alterations of testicular histology with age including thickening of the basal membrane when spermatogenesis was arrested. The number of germinal cells and Sertoli cells decreased with age with important individual variations. Nevertheless spermatogenesis could be possible until 95 years. The rate of aneuploidy was not influenced by age when spermatogenesis was complete. However, we observed an increased aneuploidy rate in postmeiotic cells when spermiogenesis was arrested. On the other hand apoptosis was not increased with age. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our study confirms that spermatogenesis is possible until a very advanced age (95 years) without any specific chromosome risk. The question of mutagenesis remains to be solved.