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The concentration of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in the submandibular gland of immature female mice (less than 6 weeks old) was low, ranging from 0·07 to 0·17 pmol (0·4 to 1·0 ng)/mg wet wt, but increasing to 7·61 pmol/mg wet wt by 8 weeks of age. It remained relatively constant up to 24 weeks of age, but thereafter the glandular EGF concentration increased again during the post-reproductive period to reach 62·9 pmol/mg wet wt. In contrast, the glandular EGF content in male mice increased greatly during the first 17 weeks of age to about 310 pmol/mg wet wt, and thereafter remained relatively constant up to 48 weeks of age. Ovariectomy of mature virgin mice markedly increased the glandular concentration of EGF to about 74·4 pmol/mg wet wt 4 weeks after the operation. This increase was suppressed by oestradiol-17β administered to ovariectomized mice at a dose of 1 µg/mouse per day but not by 1 mg progesterone. Histological studies indicated that granular convoluted tubular cells that produced EGF in the submandibular gland were much less abundant in 12-week-old female and in oestrogen-treated ovariectomized mature mice than in 40-week-old female and ovariectomized mature mice. We conclude that oestrogen suppresses the concentration of EGF in the submandibular gland of female mice.

J. Endocr. (1986) 109, 221–225