The maturation of convoluted granular tubule cells from mouse submandibular glands during its postnatal development: increase in the cell size

RESUMO

We studied the evolution of nuclear and cytoplasmic volume and of the cytoplasm-nucleus ratio of convoluted granular tubule secretory cells in the submandibular glands of male albino Swiss mice at 21, 28, 35, 42 and 56 days of age. Nuclear volume was measured on 0.25um sections by morphometric method of Bach and the volume densities of nucleus and cytoplasm were determined by point-count volmetry. The date were used to calculate the cytoplasm/nucleus ratio and cytoplasmic volume. The nuclear volume of convoluted tubule cells decreased by 44.6% over the study period, where as the cytoplasmic volume increased markedly by 126.2% from 21 to 35 days of postnatal life, with no statiscally significant increases occurring thereafter. The cytoplasm/nucleus ratio increased by 331.3% over the study period