Abstract
Summary
A series of sympathomimetic and parasympathomimetic agents were administered chronically to rats. At 3 and 10 days, the effects of these agents [the β-adrenergic drug, ISO; the primarily α-adrenergic drugs, epinephrine and phenylephrine, and the parasympathomimetic agents, pilocarpine (PC) and Urecholine (UR)] on parotid gland weight, and size and mitotic activity of acinar cells were examined. It was found that mitotic activity was observed only under those conditions where activity of β-adrenergic receptors could be implicated (ISO, PC, and UR), and the β-blocking agent, Inderal, was used to demonstrate this point. Increases in cell and gland size more generally accompanied β-adrenergic activity and were evident even in the absence of a distinct mitotic response; α-mediated effects, however, produced no mitotic effects but instead decreased cell and gland size. Secretory activity was not necessarily involved in any of the β-adrenergically mediated increases in gland size, acinar cell size or number.
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