acinar cell of salivary gland
acinar cell of salivary gland
An acinar cell that is part of the salivary gland epithelium, responsible for synthesizing and secreting the primary saliva essential for oral digestion, antimicrobial defense, and mucosal immunity. It features apical-basal polarity with apical secretory granules, and tight junctions that maintain polarity and regulate calcium-dependent saliva exocytosis triggered by parasympathetic and sympathetic signals (Ambudkar, 2015). This cell functions in coordination with contractile myoepithelial cells, which aid saliva flow through the ducts into the oral cavity (Khan et al., 2022). In mice and humans, acinar cell development relies on the transcription factor SOX2 (Emmerson et al., 2017), with self-renewal achieved primarily through acinar cell self-duplication and supported by progenitor populations during injury and regeneration (Aure et al., 2016).