Krause’s corpuscles [Wilhelm J.F. Krause, German anatomist, 1833–1910; L, corpusculum, little body] , any of a number of sensory end organs in the conjunctiva of the eye; mucous membranes of the lips and tongue; epineurium of nerve trunks, the penis, and the clitoris; and synovial membranes of certain joints. Krause’s corpuscles are tiny cylindric oval bodies with a capsule formed by the expansion of the connective tissue sheath of a medullated fiber. They contain a soft, semifluid core in which the axon terminates either in a bulbous extremity or in a coiled mass. Also called end bulbs of Krause. Compare Golgi-Mazzoni corpuscles, Pacini’s corpuscles.
