Histochemical identification of glycoproteins in pig bronchial epithelium: (a) normal and (b) hypertrophied from enzootic pneumonia.

The glycoproteins in the normal pig bronchial gland are identified by the combined Alcian Blue (AB)-periodic acid Schiff (PAS) technique, with the use of sialidase digestion and AB staining either at pH 2-6 or at pH 1-0. In enzootic pneumonia (produced experimentally by infection with Mycoplasma hyorhinis) the bronchial gland hypertrophies, mucous and serous cells both increase, in number and size; hence the total glycoprotein content of the gland increases. The distribution of glycoproteins in the hypertrophied gland differs from that in the normal. Quantitative analysis of the mucous cells shows that in the hypertrophied gland the acid glycoprotein is increased relative to the neutral. There is also a relative change in the amounts of sialidase-sensitive sialomucin and sulphomucin; both are significantly increased at the expense of the sialidase-resistant sialomucin. Qualitative analysis of the serous cells shows that in the normal gland most of the glycoprotein is neutral and that the small amount of acid glycoprotein is sialidase-resistant sialomucin. In the hypertrophied gland there is relatively more acid glycoprotein which is either sialidase-resistant sialomucin or sulphomucin; in addition, in pigs with enzootic pneumonia there is an increase in the height of the bronchial epithelium and a depletion in both goblet cell number and glycoprotein content, which latter has more neutral glycoprotein and less acid glycoprotein.