ABSTRACT
It is well known that taste buds are dependent on an intact nerve supply, and when experimentally denervated they degenerate and disappear (von Vintschgau & Honigschmied, 1877; von Vintschgau, 1880; Griffini, 1887; Meyer, 1897; Olmsted, 1920a, b, 1921, 1922; May, 1925; Whiteside, 1927; Torrey, 1934, 1936; Wagner, 1953; Guth, 1957, 1958, 1963; Beidler, 1962, 1963). Olmsted (1920 b) has suggested that the degenerating taste bud cells are cleared away by macrophages invading the epithelium; Guth (1957, 1958, 1963) has demon-strated sloughing of degenerating taste buds from the epithelial surface, and others believe that taste bud cells dedifferentiate to become lining epithelium (Meyer, 1897; Wagner, 1953). Because of this disagreement and because recent evidence for cell turnover in taste buds has indicated that cell death and replace-ment is a normal occurrence (Beidler, 1962, 1963; DeLorenzo, 1963; Beidler & Smallman, 1965), it is pertinent to study the fine structure of degenerating taste buds in the hope of elucidating the process by which taste bud cells and nerve terminals degenerate.