In the oral cavity the tongue is an important muscular organ that supports the swallowing of food and liquids. It is responsible for the sense of taste, based on the many different taste buds it contains. Research in the field of tongue diseases demands for suitable preclinical models. The healthy rabbit tongue may therefore serve as baseline and reference for the pathological situation. With this consideration, we covered the fixation and histological stainings as well as the immunohistochemical labelling of the healthy rabbit tongue. In this technical note, initial choice of the fixative is discussed, with a comparison of formalin fixation and subsequent paraffin embedding versus cryopreservation. Moreover, we delineate the effect of an antigen retrieval step for formalin fixation by several examples. Finally, we provide ECM markers collagen I, collagen III, fibronectin, α-SMA and elastin staining as well as ki67 for proliferative status and PAR-2 protein expression as a marker for inflammatory status and nociception in tongue sections, mainly from the tongue body. Technically, we found superiority of paraffin sections for collagen I, collagen III, fibronectin, ki67 and α-SMA labelling, for selected detections systems. As for ECM components, the lamina propria was very rich in collagen and fibronectin, while the muscular body of the tongue showed only collagen and fibronectin positive areas between the muscle fibers. Moreover, α-SMA was clearly expressed in the walls of arteries and veins. The inflammatory marker PAR-2 on the other hand was prominently expressed in the salivary glands and to some extent in the walls of the vessels. Particular PAR-2 expression was found in the excretory ducts of the tongue. This technical note has the aim to provide baseline images that can be used to compare the pathological state of the diseased rabbit tongue as well as for inter-species comparison, such as mouse or rat tongue. Finally, it can be used for the comparison with the human situation.

在口腔中，舌头是支持食物和液体吞咽的重要肌肉器官。它负责味觉，基于它包含的许多不同的味蕾。舌头疾病领域的研究需要合适的临床前模型。因此，健康兔舌可以作为病理情况的基线和参考。考虑到这一点，我们涵盖了健康兔舌头的固定和组织学染色以及免疫组织化学标记。在本技术说明中，讨论了固定剂的初步选择，并对福尔马林固定和随后的石蜡包埋与冷冻保存进行了比较。此外，我们通过几个例子描述了福尔马林固定的抗原修复步骤的效果。最后，我们提供 ECM 标记物胶原蛋白 I、胶原蛋白 III、纤连蛋白、α-SMA 和弹性蛋白染色，以及用于增殖状态的 ki67 和 PAR-2 蛋白表达，作为舌切片（主要来自舌体）炎症状态和伤害感受的标记物。从技术上讲，我们发现对于选定的检测系统，石蜡切片对于 I 型胶原、III 型胶原、纤连蛋白、ki67 和 α-SMA 标记具有优越性。至于ECM成分，固有层富含胶原蛋白和纤连蛋白，而舌肌体仅在肌纤维之间显示出胶原蛋白和纤连蛋白阳性区域。此外，α-SMA在动脉和静脉壁中清晰表达。另一方面，炎症标记物 PAR-2 在唾液腺中显着表达，并在一定程度上在血管壁中表达。在舌头的排泄管中发现了特殊的 PAR-2 表达。本技术说明的目的是提供基线图像，可用于比较患病兔子舌头的病理状态以及物种间比较，例如小鼠或大鼠舌头。最后，可以用于与人类情况的比较。