A preliminary study of the submandibular gland of the rat after one-year cadmium intoxication. Part II. Pathomorphology and ultrastructure.

The aim of the present study was to establish to what degree a one-year exposure of rat females to 5, 50 and 100 mg of Cd/l affects cell morphology of the submandibular glands. After one-year cadmium exposure of female rats, at doses of 5, 50 and 100 mg Cd/l, a pathomorphological examination revealed periductal fibrosis in the submandibular glands of rats in all the three experimental groups, which increased with cadmium dose. We also found foamish cytoplasm in the cells of the submandibular glands in all the experimental groups, the intensity of that phenomenon also increasing with Cd dose. The ultrastructural examination revealed no abnormalities in Group I. However, in Groups II and III, we observed numerous granules with a secretion, varying in shape and size that filled up the cytoplasm both in the mucous and serous cells.