Relationship between prandial drinking behavior and supersensitivity of salivary glands after superior salivatory nucleus lesions in rats Jiménez Ramos, Juan Manuel Castillo, María Elena Puerto Salgado, Amadeo Prandial drinking Saliva Salivary glands Superior salivatory nucleus Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Madrid, Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund- ERDF (PSI2010–14979 and PSI2013–41098-P) Prandial drinking, an increase in the number of drinking responses and secondary or non-homeostatic polydipsia in the presence of dry food, is typically associated with a deficit in salivary secretion. This study investigates the degree of salivary gland supersensitivity to pilocarpine administration after lesions to the superior salivatory nucleus (SSN), the site of origin of the parasympathetic preganglionic neurons that innervate the submandibularsublingual (S-S) salivary glands. The main aim was to determine if there is a relationship between the degree of glandular supersensitivity, as an index of secretory deficit, and the development of prandial drinking in lesioned rats. Results showed that following SSN lesions two subgroups of rats were obtained. One subgroup exhibited prandial drinking but the other was similar to the control group. The SSN-lesioned prandial drinking subgroup presented significantly greater supersensitivity than the SSN-lesioned non-prandial drinking rats; the nonprandial drinking subgroup, in turn, presented significantly more supersensitivity than controls. Additionally, SS supersensitivity observed in rats that exhibited prandial drinking due to the sectioning of chorda tympani efferent axons was compared to that observed in rats exhibiting prandial drinking due to SSN lesions. It was found that both groups presented the same S-S supersensitivity curve. These results indicate that SSN lesions produce a gradation of S-S supersensitivity values that appear to run parallel to the degree of glandular secretory deficit caused by the lesions. Thus, only the rats with greater secretory deficit (greater supersensitivity) develop prandial drinking. These data support the idea that there is in fact a functional link between the lateral reticular formation of the brainstem (the region associated with the SSN) and S-S salivary glands. 2024-01-11T08:29:40Z 2024-01-11T08:29:40Z 2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Published version: Juan M. J. Ramos, María Elena Castillo, Amadeo Puerto. Relationship between prandial drinking behavior and supersensitivity of salivary glands after superior salivatory nucleus lesions in rats. Physiology & Behavior, 224 (2020) 113022. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.113022] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/86701 10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.113022 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier