The occurrence and composition of intranodal salivary gland tissue (ISGT) in the head and neck region were investigated. ISGT was mainly composed of mature acini, intercalated ducts and intralobular ducts but immature acini (20.8%) and immature small ducts (18.8%) were also observed. The latter resembled salivary gland tissue in an early developmental stage. Various histological changes of ISGT were observed including cyst formation (16.7%), oncocytic metaplasia (8.3%), oncocytic adenomatous hyperplasia (8.3%) and ductal proliferation (20.8%). Thus ISGT may contain immature components with a potential for differentiation and proliferation.