Comparative morphometrical study of the acini in parotid gland in Wistar and Brown Norway rats

Abstract

Morphologically, the salivary glands consist of acini and duct system. The acini have a different structure depending on the salivary gland, differ from one species to another and being in relation to the diet. We did not find enough information about the appearance of the acini for each species, that is why we considered it appropriate to convey morphometric investigations on acini in parotid gland from two strains of laboratory rats. For this study, we used five male Wistar rats and five male Brown Norway rats, euthanised by prolonged exposure to isoflurane. The parotid glands were harvested for histological investigation. For measuring and counting the acini we used AmScope program and the obtained data were analyzed with GraphPad Prism 6 software. The investigation showed that the number of the acini/studied surface (1699509.677 μm2) turned out to be different in those two rat strains taken into study. In Brown Norway rat, from the total surface taken into study, the acini occupy 80.52% and 75.55% in Wistar rat. In Brown Norway rat, the acini were found to be 1.58 times bigger than in Wistar rat, but they are 1.46 times more numerous in Wistar rat. The difference is given by the larger average size of the acini in Brown Norway than in Wistar rat.