This is quite similar to slide a-90 except it is lightly stained. This is a plastic embedded section and shows the shape of the cells of the acini and the intercalated ducts. The occasional vacuole is from extracted lipid. The most conspicuous ducts are interlobular ducts which have a cuboidal to columnar epithelium and are surrounded by connective tissue. The septae contain the interlobular branches of the duct system, blood vessels, and nerves.
Intralobular ducts are of two types, the striated ducts and the intercalated ducts .
Intercalated ducts connect the acini with the striated ducts which empty into the interlobular ducts. Mixed acini frequently are composed of mucous cells with a serous demilune or a crescent cap. They are much easier to detect in the ducts, standing out because their nuclei are flattened up against the inner layer of the basal lamina, with the nuclei elongated parallel to the basal lamina. The myoepithelial cell is located on the epithelial side of the basal lamina. The salivary glands differ in the proportion of duct type and in the predominance of serous or mucous parenchyma.