Development of secretory units of mouse submandibular gland

An unusual sexually dimorphic mosaic distribution of a subset of kallikreins in the granular convoluted tubule of the mouse submandibular gland detected by an antibody with restricted immunoreactivity

The granular convoluted tubule of the mouse submandibular gland contains a wide variety of biologically active proteins, including several kallikreins. The tubule is under multihormonal regulation, and is sexually dimorphic, being larger in males than in females. Correspondingly, levels of its various protein secretory products are more abundant in males than in females. However, isoelectric focussing studies show that the true tissue kallikrein, mK1, is more abundant in the female than in the male submandibular gland. In this study, an antiserum was prepared with restricted immunoreactivity for mouse mK1, and possibly other kallikrein family members of low abundance in the mouse submandibular gland, and used for the immunocytochemical staining of the granular convoluted tubule cells in the submandibular gland of adult male and female mice, by indirect enzyme-labeled and immunogold-labeled antibody methods for light and electron microscopy, respectively. The distribution of immunoreactive tubule cells showed an unusual sexual dimorphism. In males only a few scattered slender tubule cells were strongly stained, while the more typical large tubule cells were only occasionally weakly positive, and many of them were not stained. By contrast, in females slender tubule cells were not seen, and about two thirds of the more typical tubule cells showed moderate to strong immunostaining. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that immunostaining was confined to the secretion granules in granular convoluted tubule cells in both sexes. The slender tubule cells of males had many strongly stained small apical secretion granules and occasional basal infoldings; in the weakly positive larger more typical tubule cells not all secretion granules were positive, and there was intergranular variation in the intensity of staining of positive granules. In females, although more tubule cells were stained, intergranular variations in staining intensity were also noted. In both sexes, many tubule cells did not contain any secretion granules that showed immunogold labeling for kallikreins. These findings establish that, in contrast to the situation for the majority of granular convoluted tubules proteins, mK1 and possibly other minor kallikrein family members are more abundant in the granular convoluted tubules of female mice, and that there is considerable variation in the content of these kallikreins not only between different tubule cells, but also in individual secretion granules in any given tubule cell in either sex.

The postnatal development of the sexually dimorphic duct system and of amylase activity in the submandibular glands of mice

The submandibular glands of developing and mature Strong A mice were studied by light and electron microscopy. The glands of both sexes show the same cell types during development, but during maturation the glands display a degree of sex-dimorphism. Striated ducts, which differentiate from the larger intralobular ducts present in the neonatal gland, first appear by 5 days of age and reach their mature condition by 20 days of age. Granular convoluted tubule cells, which differentiate from striated duct cells, are first seen at 15 days of age in both sexes. Subsequently, they show a more rapid development in males than in females, and are dimorphically represented by 20 days of age. Intercalated ducts in the neonatal gland contain nongranular and granular cells. With maturation the number of granular cells decreases, apparently due to their conversion into the nongranular type, with their eventual disappearance from the glands of adult males. Their retention in adult females further defines the sexual dimorphism shown by these glands. Amylase activity in gland homogenates is first detectable at 20 days of age in both sexes. During development the male glands show a rapid rise in levels of amylase activity, whereas female glands show a more gradual rise. In mature animals, male glands have higher levels of amylase activity than female glands. The developmental and adult status of amylase activity parallels that of the granular convoluted tubules.