Sensory hairs are also called sinus hairs, whiskers and vibrissae. They are large hairs that extend far beyond regular hairs, both out from the body and into the dermis of skin. At their bases are large CT sacs which are filled with blood, permeated with trabeculae of CT, and innervated with sensory endings.

Slide 66 has at least one sensory hair, along with many regular hairs, for size comparison. Take the opportunity to use this slide to review holocrine and apocrine sweat glands. You may wish to look at your slides 6 and 17 for whiskers, as well.

This is a new addition to our slide set, and it is a good example of vibrissae. There is also good mucous membrane, hairy skin with associated glands, skeletal muscle, blood vessels, etc. The tissue was perfusion-fixed with glutaraldehyde, leading to excessive 'chunkiness' or shrinkage of collagen fibres. Hair clusters show quite nicely.

Return to modules

On to the eye