Do parathyroid glands from individuals of different age and gender contain lymph vessels?

Whereas lymph vessels in some endocrine glands have been thoroughly investigated, data on these vessels in human parathyroid glands are often contradictory and deficient in available literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to histomorphologically investigate whether lymph vessels could be found in human parathyroid glands postnatally and, if so, whether their presence was age- and gender-dependent. A total of 44 parathyroid glands from subjects of both genders, aged 4-90 years, were studied. The glands were divided into three groups. Those from the 1st and the 2nd age group demonstrated similar morphological structure of parenchyma with predominant chief cells with pale-staining cytoplasm, while the frequency of lymph vessels was lower in the 2nd group. Unlike in these groups, chief cells with dark- staining cytoplasm predominated in the glandular parenchyma of the 3rd age group where lymph vessels were not found in any of the examined glands. The frequency of lymph vessels in parathyroid glands was almost the same for both genders. Histomorphologic occurrence of lymph vessels coincided with the presence of endocrine cells with pale-staining cytoplasm, which allowed the assumption that lymph vessels were also one of the signs of functional activity of human parathyroid glands.