[Study of the rat parotid blood capillaries during a 3-hour feeding cycle]

Regularities attending the change in the lumen diameter and the area of the endothelial cells were studied in the capillaries of the rat parotid gland during the secretory cycle under conditions of circulatory ischemia. The mean lumen diameter and the area of endothelial cells failed to change during the secretory cycle and during the occlusion of the carotid artery. It is thus supposed that enhanced capillary blood flow during the discharge of saliva could be explained by the growing number of the functioning capillaries.