Nucleic Acid Phosphorus in Submaxillary Glands of Mice After Duct Ligation

Previous research from this laboratory(1, 2) has demonstrated that ligation of the excretory ducts of the submaxillary glands of mice leads to an atrophy of these organs.Cytological, histochemical, and biochemical data indicate that secretory processes are absent or greatly reduced, and no degenerative processes can be observed in a gland under these conditions .This atrophic process begins 2 to 3 days after duct ligation and reaches its maximum 15 to 30 days later.Duct-ligated glands are thus considered "resting" glands, useful for a comparison with normal ones in studying phenomena related to cell secretion.In view of the importance attributed to ribopolynucleotides in processes involving protein synthesis (3, 4) and the absence of biochemical data on protein-secreting glands, it seemed of interest to study the weight and nucleoprotein phosphorus content of normal and duct-ligated glands.