The use of morphological study technique for investigation of labial and palatine glands

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Due to the deterioration of environmental conditions that promotes the onset of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and the progress in the diagnosis, the frequency of registration of intercurrent pathology of salivary glands has markedly risen in recent years, demonstrating the increased scientific interest in the research of the common and distinctive features of their structure. The aim: The paper was aimed at the development of the method of morphological study of human minor salivary (labial and palatine) glands by the use of plastic wax reconstruction to obtain the plastic model of the acini and ducts of human minor salivary glands. Materials and Methods: Specimens of the glandular area of the hard palate mucosa and labial mucosa in its middle third have been studied. To gain the objective of the investigation the technique for morphological study of the human minor salivary (labial and palatine) glands is to be developed, encompassing the analysis of the spatial organization of the glandular epithelium of the labial and palatine glands together with blood microcirculatory flow by fixing the obtained specimens of the minor salivary glands in 4% glutaraldehyde solution and osmium tetroxide with subsequent embedding into the Epon-812, staining the serial semi-thin sections with phosphate buffered 0,1% toluidine blue solution, photomacrography of the distinguished boundaries of the investigated structures and obtaining of photoreconstructions. Results and Conclusions: Thus, the use of suggested technique enables to obtain the megascopic reconstruction of the acini and ducts of the labial and palatine glands, which can be studied from different sides, getting the full visualization of the shape and size, as well as to explore the glands’ inner configuration, the geometry of the lumen of the epithelial excretory ducts, to determine changes in the thickness of the wall, to get a visual representation of the microtopographic interactions between the different parts of blood microcirculatory flow and excretory ducts of the minor salivary glands.