Morphological influence of osteoporosis and bisphosphonates on mandibular glands of rats
2019 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 1-7
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2019 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 1-7
Bisphosphonates (BP) are widely used therapeutic agents for osteoporosis (OP). While many OP patients experience dry mouth, no study has investigated the morphological in fluence of OP and BP on salivary glands. We investigated the morphological influence of BP on mandibular glands using normal rats and an OP rat model. The study included 36, 8-week-old female Wistar rats. We divided them into OP and SH groups (18 animals each). The rats in the OP group underwent bilateral ovariectomy, and the SH group received a sham operation. Nine rats from each group were injected with BP, and the remaining were injected with normal saline. Both mandibular glands were removed from each animal. The bone density of the femur was measured using micro-computed tomography, cross-sectional areas of acini were measured using optical microscopy, diameters of acini and periacinar capillaries were measured using scanning electron microscopy, and statistical analysis (at 5% significance) was performed. Each measurement for the SH-BP and OP-BP groups were significantly smaller than those of the SH-NS and OP-NS groups. The results suggest that BP administration caused atrophic changes to the mandibular gland tissues and miniaturization of capillaries, thereby reducing the volume of saliva secreted. (J Osaka Dent Univ 2019; 53: 1-7)
