Radiological studies of experimentally induced sialoadenitis of the mouse parotid gland: quantitative microsialography and histology.

Sialoadenitis was induced experimentally in mouse parotid glands and the changes in gland morphology analysed over a period of 60 days by means of quantitative microsialography and histology. The microsialogram was digitized as an intensity histogram and the glands evaluated for seven histomorphometric parameters involving both the acini and duct systems. Differences in the intensity-histogram between experimental and control glands were shown to represent changes in duct architecture in the presence of inflammation, while differences in the relative frequency of pixels between low- and high-intensity areas were found to be due to a decrease in intralobular duct size, and acinar size and number in the former compared with an increase in the major duct components in the latter.