Fig. 5. Tongue intrinsic muscles in adults. Azan staining. Two frontal sections from a 76 years old female (A–D) and an 82 years old male (E–G). Panel (B) displays a higher magnification view of a square in panel (A, C, D) correspond to squares in panel (B). Panels (F, G) are higher magnification views of circles in panel (E). The intrinsic vertical muscle (VM) fibers cross muscle fibers of the transverse muscle (TM) at a manner suggesting the endomysium-to-endomysium contact (D, F). The transverse muscle fibers appear to join in panel (C). The transverse muscle fibers appear to take a wavy course to avoid contact to the vertical muscle in panel (G). (A, B, E) Scale bars=1 mm, (C, D, F, G) scale bars=0.1 mm. SLM, superior longitudinal muscle.
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