Pathological study of lipofuscin in the human tongue muscle

Abstract

The author have pathologically investigated the presence of lipofuscin in human tongue muscle of 89 autopsy cases.

The pigmented granules were stained black with the Masson-Fontana procedure, black with Sudan Black B and purple-pink with PAS staining, and marked yellow color autofluorescence was exhibited in unstained section under ultraviolet light. These reactions showed characteristics of the granules described as lipofuscin. Lipofuscin granules were revealed to be present in the tongue muscle fibers of 80.9% of the cases. Analysis between increase in quantity of the granule and increase in age showed that there was a statistically significant variation (P<0.001).