Figure 3.

Morphological changes in in‐vitro‐cultured salivary gland epithelial cells (SGEC) treated with interleukin (IL)‐17, IL‐22 or IL‐17 + IL‐22. SGEC derived from salivary gland (SG) biopsies of healthy donors were incubated with 50 ng/ml interleukins for 72 h. (a) Untreated SGEC show a clear pebble‐like shape and cell–cell adhesion. IL‐17‐ and IL‐22‐treated cells (b,c) show a decrease in cell–cell contacts and a more elongated morphological shape. The most evident morphological changes toward a mesenchymal phenotype were observed in SGEC subjected to double stimulation with IL‐17 + IL‐22 (d) that showed a high proportion of spindle‐shaped cells. Changes in cell morphology were assessed under phase contrast light microscopy. Bar = 20 μm.