Parasympathectomy induces morphological changes and alters gene-expression profiles in the rat submandibular gland.
OBJECTIVE
The chorda-lingual (CL) nerve carries parasympathetic fibers to the hilum of the sublingual and submandibular glands (SMGs) and evokes the secretion of saliva. The effect of cutting the CL nerve on the biological processes in SMGs was investigated by examining the gene-expression profiles in the SMGs after a surgical parasympathectomy.


METHODS
At day 3 after the CL nerve cut, the changes in the SMGs at both the experimental cut and contralateral control sides were analysed by microarray and light microscopy. The expression levels of 6 selected genes were confirmed by real-time PCR, Western blot and immunofluorescence staining.


RESULTS
The wet weight of the parasympathectomised SMGs decreased significantly compared to that of the contralateral side (p<0.05). Histological analyses after the parasympathectomy showed a widened interacinar space as well as some atropic changes to the acini of the SMGs in the cut side. Microarray analysis revealed that twofold differential expression in mRNA expression in the parasympathectomized SMGs were detected in 88 genes (0.004%): 41 genes were overexpressed, 11 were underexpressed and 36 were unknown. Changes of the expression of 6 selected genes detected by Western blot and/or real-time PCR were consistent with the microarray data.


CONCLUSIONS
The important genes involved in biological processes for salivation were identified through a large-scale gene expression analysis.
Kang
J H
JH
2nd Stage BK 21 for School of Dentistry, Dental Science Research Institute, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757, South Korea.
Kim
B K
BK
Park
B I
BI
Kim
H J
HJ
Ko
H M
HM
Yang
S Y
SY
Kim
M S
MS
Jung
J Y
JY
Kim
W J
WJ
Oh
W M
WM
Kim
S H
SH
Kim
J H
JH
D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D017764:Parasympathectomy; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012472:Salivation / Q000235:genetics*; D013363:Submandibular Gland / Q000294:innervation*
D012333:RNA, Messenger