Histochemistry of Oral Mucous Membrane: Total Protein, Sulfhydryls, Disulfides, Ribonucleic Acid, and Desoxyribonucleic Acid

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Abstract
One hundred male rats and 75 Syrian hamsters were sacrificed at intervals between 1 and 900 days of age and sections of the palate and gingiva examined histochemically. None of the substances investigated appeared to undergo discernible variation associated with aging and no species differences were found. Epithelial changes presumed to be developmental were observed between 1- and 8-days of age. The one-day old parakeratotic oral mucous membrane epithelium and the 8-day and older completely keratinized epithelium were observed to stain similarly for sulphydryl, disulfide and total protein. This finding suggests that an alteration in protein groups other than sulphydryl, and disulfide are involved in the transformation of parakeratotic to completely keratinized epithelium. The connective tissue ground substance consistently stained less intensely than epithelial intercellular material for sulphydryl, disulfide and total protein indicating chemical differences between the 2. The Feulgen reaction for desoxyribonucleic acid stained the flattened superficial epithelial nuclei with the same intensity as the nuclei of the basal cells of the stratum Malpighii.