Pharyngeal Tonsil

In contrast to the palatine and lingual tonsils, the epipharyngeal tonsil has a multilayered ciliated epithelium 1 . Islands of multi-layered squamous epithelium may interrupt it. This non-ciliated epithelium may contain lymphocytes  as well. The mucous membrane forms sagittal folds, i.e., the surface is enlarged not by invaginations and tonsillar pits, but by the formation of microfolds. As in the palatine tonsil, there is a layer of lymphoreticular tissue 2 with germinal centers immediately under the epithelium. The connective tissue is stained blue.

1 Multilayered stratified ciliated epithelium with goblet cells

2 Lymphoreticular tissue

3 Crypt between two microfolds of the mucous membrane

Stain: azan; magnification: × 25

References

Kuehnel, W.(2003). Color Atlas of Cytology, Histology, and Microscopic Anatomy. 4^th edition . Institute of Anatomy Universitätzu Luebeck Luebeck, Germany . Thieme Stuttgart · New York .