Effect of Salivariadenectomy and Administration of Salivary Gland Homogenates upon the Reproductive Organs of the Female Rat
RICHARD P. SUDDICK 1
1 Creighton University Dental School, Omaha, Nebraska
Salivariadenectomy in the female rat is followed by retarded development, decreased activity, and atrophy in the reproductive organs. These changes are characterized grossly by reduced organ weights and sizes; histologically, by the appearance of fewer mature follicles in the ovaries and lack of appearance of characteristic cyclic changes in the uteri. Vascularization of both the ovaries and the uteri of the desalivated animals was less than that of the controls. Injections of salivary glandular homogenates completely reversed these degenerative responses in the salivariadenectomized animals, increasing reproductive organ activity above the control level with the same criteria of response. Gross body weights of the homogenate-treated, desalivated animals also rose above that of the controls.
Submitted on October 23, 1959
Revised on January 18, 1960
