[On a biochemical model of neurogenic sialosis: studies in rats (author's transl)]

By studying the influence on rat-parotid glands of the antihypertensive drug, guanoxane (Envacar), we attempted to establish a biochemical model of a neurogenic sialosis. Protein content and alpha-amylase activity were determined in gland extracts and in polyacrylamide gel slabs after electrophoretic separation of equal amounts of parotid-gland protein. The values for both parameters showed a marked increase during the first week of treatment as compared with the controls, but decreased subsequently. After electrophoretic separation into 4 isoamylases, the activity per unit protein decreased with time in one group of isoenzymes and increased in another. We interpret these findings as a gradual shift in the isoamylase distribution pattern of the rats' parotid glands with increasing duration of a neurogenic sialosis of the peripheralvegetative type.