The palatine tonsils(tonsils) and pharyngeal tonsils(adenoids) are situated at the
entrance of the respiratory and alimentary tracts and represent the first site of contact
with a variety of microorganisms and other antigens present in food and inhaled air.
They are known as lymphoid organs carrying out the function of cellular and humoral
immunity, and so they form a local protective barrier. And the expression of the
vascular endothelial adhesion molecules is known to play an important role for the
inflammatory reaction in tonsils and adenoids as well as in other inflammatory tissues,
by binding with the receptors on the surface of leukocytes. But although several
scientific hypotheses on the role of these lympoid tissues have been suggested, their
complete functions have remained unknown. The purpose of this study is to present an
basic data of the knowledge on the immunologic physiology of the tonsils and adenoids
and their role as active immunologic organs that reinforce the mucosal immunity of the
entire upper aerodigestive tract. We examined 16 human tonsils and adenoids and the
expression of three endothelial adhesion molecules, vascular endothelial adhesion
molecule-1(VCAM-1), intracellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1), and E-selection, in
tissue sections using immunohistochemistry. We used the inferior turbinate mucosa
obtained from 9 patients getting septal surgery as a control group. The expressions of
vascular endothelial adhesion molecule-1(VCAM-1) and intracellular adhesion molecule-1
(ICAM-1) were significantly higher in the tonsils and adenoids. But respectively, there
were no significant differences between the tonsils and adenoids. The expression of
E-selection was significant higher in the tonsils, but not in the adenoids. We observed
that tonsils and adenoids showed significantly higher expressions of vascular endothelial
adhesion molecule-1(VCAM-1), intracellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1), and
E-selection (in the case of E-selection, only in the tonsils). We propose that these
adhesion molecules play an important role for the immunologic reaction by the
transendothelial migration of lymphocytes and binding with the receptors on the surface
of leukocytes
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