[The role of calcium on parotid cell differentiation and secretion in vitro]

To study the role of calcium on parotid cell differentiation and secretion, high extracellular calcium was used to treat the parotid gland cells in culture. Immunohistochemical staining was applied to examine the expression of proteins involved in cell-cell interaction, cell differentiation and parotid gland secretary proteins. The results demonstrated that the expression of CAM and Cx32 increased and more cells had positive reaction to c-jun oncoprotein. No effect of calcium on the expression of EGF-gamma, c-fos, alpha-amylase and PRP was observed. The data indicate that extracellular calcium play an important role on cells differentiation. However, it does not affect the cell secretion.