ULTRASTRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS IN SUBMANDIBULAR GLANDS OF RATS (Rattus norvegicus) SUBMITTED TO EXPERIMENTAL CHRONIC ALCOHOLISM

the objective of this study was to analyze the submandibular glands of rats (rattus norvegicus) submitted to experimental chronic alcoholism at electronic transmission microscopy. the experiment was programmed for a 15-month period, and in every five months, three animals from each group were sacrificed. twenty-seven male rats, with average weight of 300g, were used and divided into three experimental groups with the following characteristics: 1) alcoholic: received ethanol, daily, at 6% for 15 months; 2) isocaloric: received diluted sucrose at a concentration of 87.14 g/l, corresponding energetically to the caloric content of the alcoholic group; and 3) control: received tap water "ad libitum" as liquid diet. the animals were fed with the same amount of purina ration as a conventional weekly solid diet. it was observed several ultrastructural alterations in the alcoholic animals mainly in seromucous cells: dilation and enlargement of golgi complex cisterns; the presence of digestive vacuoles, a large number of electronlucent vesicles and an increase in intercellular space, an increase between basolateral interdigitation cell and an enlargement of connective tissue. it was observed at some cells of the intercalary ducts at a lower part of lateral membranes, only after 15-month treatment, the presence of wide and clear vesicles with electronlucent material located among cell secretion granules of granular ducts. no alterations were observed in the animals of the control and isocaloric groups as well as the other parts of glandular parenchyma of animals of the alcoholic group