Comparative ultrastructure of vallate, foliate and fungiform taste buds of golden Syrian hamster

A fine-structure study of the hamster fungiform, foliate and vallate taste buds was undertaken for comparative purposes. All three taste bud types shared in common composition of the dark cells, light cells, basal cells, nerve fibers and nerve endings and undifferentiated peripheral cells, but morphological difference existed among them. The foliate and vallate taste buds were quite similar in their ultrastructural morphology. Their dark cells displayed long apical necks, long apical microvilli, apical osmiophilic secretory granules and an abundant rough endoplasmic reticulum. The dark cells of the fungiform taste buds, however, showed no neck formation and lacked apical osmiophilic granules. They had short apical microvilli and relatively scant rough endoplasmic reticulum. There was no difference in the fine structure features of the light cells, basal cells and neural elements of different types of taste buds. Both light and dark cells were much more readily distinguishable in foliate and vallate buds than in fungiform buds at both light-and electron-microscopic levels. Foliate and vallate buds demonstrated homogeneous dense substance within the taste pores while fungiform pores were frequently empty. It is speculated that the differences in taste bud morphology may be due to their different lingual locations and/or may be a reflection of the differences in the inductive influences from different nerves. Furthermore, structural differences may be responsible for varying thresholds to different taste modalities.