Changes in acetylcholinesterase-positive nerves of the submandibular salivary gland during experimental infection with a protozoon, Trypanosoma cruzi, in rats.

Using a thiocholine acetylcholinesterase histochemical technique, an appreciable reduction of the innervation was demonstrated in the submandibular glands of rats inoculated with the Y strain of Trypanosoma cruzi, at the early chronic phase of the infection. During the chronic phase of the disease there was recovery of the normal pattern of innervation in all infected animals.