MOUNTING EVIDENCE AGAINST CURRENT HISTOGENETIC CONCEPTS FOR SALIVARY-GLAND TUMORIGENESIS

Various morphological observations of salivary gland tumors are freque ntly used to support histogenetic concepts, such as the semipluripoten tial bicellular reserve cell hypothesis, for these tumors. Singularly, evidence in support of this hypothesis remains unavailable. Indeed, p hysiological evidence from studies of salivary glands have long existe d proving the semipluripotential bicellular reserve cell hypothesis wa s incorrect. More recent studies reconfirm this and show that all cell types in these complex glands are quite capable of replication and, t herefore, of being involved in tumorigenic processes. The demise of th e bicellular reserve cell hypothesis is long overdue.