José Martín-Cruces, Patricia Cuendias, Yolanda García-Mesa, Juan L Cobo, Olivia García-Suárez, Juan J Gaite, José A Vega, Benjamín Martín-Biedma
The objective of this study was to analyze the proprioceptive innervation of human lips, especially of the orbicularis oris muscle, since it is classically accepted that facial muscles lack typical proprioceptors, that is, muscle spindles, but recently this has been doubted. Upper and lower human lips (n = 5) from non-embalmed frozen cadavers were immunostained for detection of S100 protein (to identify nerves and sensory nerve formations), myosin heavy chain (to label muscle fibers within muscle spindles), and the mechano-gated ion channel PIEZO2...
September 15, 2023: Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology