Tree of Vater–Pacinian corpuscles in the human finger and thumb: a comparison between the late fetal stage and old age

Using histological sections of 12 hands from 12 human fetuses at 20–34 weeks of gestation (150–290 mm) and 14 fingers (index and small) from seven donated cadavers of elderly individuals (aged 78–95 years), we compared the features of Vater–Pacinian corpuscles between these two stages of life. Corpuscles with thin, tightly packed lamellae appeared to undergo a change to thick, loosely packed lamellae at 23–32 weeks. The typical fetal corpuscle had two parts: (1) a rod-like proximal part (0.2–0.6 mm in length) extending along the proximodistal axis of the finger, and (2) a distal end (0.1 mm) after acute bending of the proximal part. Corpuscles were associated with palmar digital nerves in the fingers, but were also present along the dorsal nerves in the thumb. A flower bouquet- or tree-like arrangement including 5–10 corpuscles extended to the dermis of the skin along a perforating artery. Serial sections of the thumb and fifth finger revealed approximately 80–180 corpuscles in the distal phalangeal segment. In elderly individuals, the corpuscles were distributed along the palmar digital nerve, but (1) their density was much lower than in fetuses and (2) a bouquet- or tree-like arrangement was rarely seen. In the distal segment, there were fewer than 40 adult corpuscles, being 0.2–0.5 mm thick and 1.0–2.5 mm long. Wavy or coiled corpuscles were evident. Because of the considerable differences in the distribution and number of corpuscles between the fetus and adult, they appear to undergo considerable depletion with age, especially along thin, superficial nerve branches.