Figure 4.

Effect of IL-1β on oxytocin-induced lacrimal gland MEC contraction. Lacrimal gland MEC were either left untreated (control) of incubated with IL-1β (10 ng/ml) for 2, 4, or 7 days. Cells were trypsinized for each time period, reseeded at low density and then stimulated with OXT (10⁻⁶ M) for 20 minutes. Changes in MEC size (i.e., contraction) following OXT stimulation was measured using ImageJ/Fiji software, as described in the Methods section. Chronic treatment of MEC with IL-1β significantly inhibited OXT-induced contraction at all three time points (Student’s t-test). Data are means ± SD; n=30-35 for day 2; n=28-29 for day 4 and n=34-35 for day 7 with all data from 3 independent experiments.