ASSOCIATION BETWEEN LEUKOCYTE TELOMERE LENGTH AND MUSCLE MASS: DATA FROM THE BERLIN AGING STUDY II (BASE-II).

infiltration in the major salivary glands (parotid, submandibular and sublingual glands).Male C57BL/6 mice were bred for 2 years under SPF condition.To examine the effect of the JTT, feed with/without JTT was given to mice.Salivary glands were dissected and processed for histological examination.Histological examination clearly indicated the severe lymphocyte infiltration in parotid glands and submandibular glands, but not in sublingual glands of control mice.Histomorphometric analysis indicated that the degree of the infiltration in control mice was 4.35 ± 1.67% in parotid glands and 8.58 ± 4.43 % in submandibular glands respectively.On the other hand, the ratio of the infiltration was reduced to 1.94 ± 1.10 % in parotid glands and 1.74 ± 0.59 % in submandibular glands of JTTtreated group.These results expect the old C57BL/6 (male) mice as a model of autoimmune disease such as Sjogren's syndrome and suggest JTT might be the effective therapeutic drug for the salivary gland disease with aging or inflammation.