Summary
Eleven biopsies of the parotid gland were studied by electron microscopy after guanacline medication and in untreated patents. The sympathetic nervous system predominates in the innervation of the normal human parotid gland. Ultrastructurally no terminal axon was observed to penetrate the basal membran reaching the myoepithelial cell or acinar cell. The smallest distance between the terminal axon and effector cell is 1 000–1 500 Å. After immersion fixation with potassium permanganate two kinds of synaptic vesicles were demonstrable: granular (adrenergic) and agranular (cholinergic) vesicles, both of which had a diameter of about 500 Å.
After guanacline medication only a few granular vesicles were visible in the varicosities of the terminal axon in the parotid gland. Most axons showed a diffuse hydropic swelling. Large osmiophilic bodies were demonstrable in damaged axons and in the cytoplasm of perineural and endothelial cells of adjacent capillaries. Osmiophilic bodies in the cytoplasm of perineural and endothelial cells in connection with so-called pilot cells of uncertain origin were interpreted as signs of neuronal regeneration.
Acetylcholinesterase activity is observed in gaps between the axons and Schwann cells of only a few axons, and along the basal membrane of acinar cells. The ultrastructural changes in the sympathetic nervous system in the parotid gland following guanacline medication are thought to be due to primary cytotoxic lesions of axons which induces a disturbance of the secretory synchrony of acinar cells.
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Mit Unterstützung der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft und der Otto-Stiftung.
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Donath, K., Seifert, G. & Pirsig, W. Sympathicusveränderungen in der Parotis bei Guanacline-Therapie. Virchows Arch. Abt. A Path. Anat. 360, 195–207 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00542980
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00542980