Evidence is not sufficient to declare the tubal gland conglomerates as salivary.

The letter to Editor is regarding an article by Pringle et al., 2023 which presents the histological and immunohistochemical characterization of the submucosal seromucous gland conglomerate at the nasopharyngeal end of the auditory tube (AT) and compares the same with the major and minor salivary glands, while trying to substantiate the claims of a previous work by Valstar et al., 2021. Contrary to their findings, a recent article by Kumari et al. 2023 presented the morpho-functional characterization of these glands and suggested against considering them as salivary. They mentioned that AT glands are "taxonomically different from the salivary glands" based on their anatomical location along the respiratory tract, the overlying mucosa lined with respirator yepithelium, and the absence of enzyme salivary amylase. This letter presents data from the already existing literature to emphasise the fact that the evidence given by Pringle et al., 2023 are not sufficient to declare the tubal gland conglomerates as salivary.