Developmental changes of sugar occurrence and distribution in the rat submandibular and sublingual glands

The developmental expression of salivary glycoconjugates was investigated i n the rat submandibular and sublingual glands by conventional and lectin hi stochemistry, By the time of the first differentiation of secretory structu res, in spite of similar morphological features, a different histochemical reactivity was detected, accounting for a relevant content of neutral glyco conjugates in the submandibular,oland and the occurrence of both neutral an d acidic glycoconjugates in the sublingual one, The use of lectins allowed the main changes of secretory components to be noted around gestational day is. DBA and WGA lectins seemed to act as pre- and post-natal development m arkers while Con A lectin was indicative of post-natal differentiation. Tak en together, data from lectin histochemistry indicated the transitional occ urrence of glycoconjugates, probably involved in temporally restricted func tions, as well as the co-existence of different secretory components that m ight also reflect maturational changes of single products.