Figure 3.

Olfactory nasal mucosa. The olfactory epithelium is mostly comprised of olfactory receptor cells and sustentacular support cells. Deep to the olfactory epithelium is the lamina propria (pink), which contains blood vessels, lymphatics and abundant branches of the trigeminal sensory neurons. Compounds deposited into the lamina propria can travel in a perineural, perivascular or perilymphatic manner to access the brain (orange). The axons of the olfactory cells traverse the lamina propria and form nerve fascicles, called the fila olfactoria. Olfactory ensheathing cells (green) pass through the cribriform plate (yellow) along with the olfactory nerve axons. The olfactory neuron axons synapse in olfactory bulb with second order neurons that then travel to other parts of the brain.