Dry eye is a painful, debilitating and often serious condition that is observed particularly in older women. It is characterized by an inability of the tear glands to produce sufficient tear fluid to wet the ocular surface and often results in inflammation and damage to the cornea and conjunctiva. At best, the condition is painful and requires the regular use of eye drops and at worst, if untreated, it can result in significant loss of visual acuity due to damage to the cornea. There are a number of different disease conditions that can cause the lacrimal glands to reduce or stop their secretion but one of the most common and well characterized is Sjorgen's syndrome. In this disease, the lacrimal glands (and salivary glands as well) become infiltrated with large numbers of lymphocytes from the immune system that destroy portions of the lacrimal gland tissue yet the remaining apparently normal appearing tissue is unable to function. The basic question, then, is why doesn't the rest of the gland continue to function. The MRL and NZB strains of mice are useful models of the disease condition and will be used along with normal mice in anatomical and physiological studies to determine what processes in the stimulus-secretion pathway have been affected by the disease.Immunocytochemistry will be used to detail the normal pattern of innervation of the lacrimal glands and to determine the neurotransmitters present. Examination of diseased glands from the MRL and NZB mice will determine what effects the infiltration has on the innervation. Experiments using isolated glands from normal and diseased animals will show whether secretion can be induced by the exposure of the tissue to known excitatory neurotransmitters and other stimulatory agents. Finally, cells will be isolated from normal and diseased glands and patch-clamp techniques will be used to characterize the ion channels present on the surface membranes of the secretory cells and to determine the changes that occur in the disease states. Such ion channels are important in the fluid transport process of the gland and are a reliable measure of its activity. These studies, therefore, will determine at what point(s) ina the stimulus-secretion process the disease process of Sjogren's syndrome is breaking the link and will assist in the process of finding a treatment to ameliorate the symptoms at least while normal tissue is still present.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY009406-06
Application #
2391729
Study Section
Visual Sciences A Study Section (VISA)
Project Start
1992-01-01
Project End
1999-03-31
Budget Start
1997-04-01
Budget End
1998-03-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
1997
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
State University New York Stony Brook
Department
Other Basic Sciences
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
804878247
City
Stony Brook
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
11794
Ding, Chuanqing; Walcott, Benjamin; Keyser, Kent T (2003) Sympathetic neural control of the mouse lacrimal gland. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 44:1513-20
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Walcott, Benjamin; Moore, Leon C; Birzgalis, Aija et al. (2002) Role of gap junctions in fluid secretion of lacrimal glands. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 282:C501-7
Paranyuk, Y; Claros, N; Birzgalis, A et al. (2001) Lacrimal gland fluid secretion and lymphocytic infiltration in the NZB/W mouse model of Sjogren's syndrome. Curr Eye Res 23:199-205
Ding, C; Walcott, B; Keyser, K T (2001) Neuronal nitric oxide synthase and the autonomic innervation of the mouse lacrimal gland. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 42:2789-94
Goldfine, S M; Walcott, B; Brink, P R et al. (1999) Myocardial connexin43 expression in left ventricular hypertrophy resulting from aortic regurgitation. Cardiovasc Pathol 8:1-6
Walcott, B; Claros, N; Patel, A et al. (1998) Age-related decrease in innervation density of the lacrimal gland in mouse models of Sjogren's syndrome. Adv Exp Med Biol 438:917-23
Brink, P R; Peterson, E; Banach, K et al. (1998) Electrophysiological evidence for reduced water flow from lacrimal gland acinar epithelium of NZB/NFW F1 mice. Adv Exp Med Biol 438:209-19
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Cameron, R H; Walcott, B; Fan, S F et al. (1994) Second messenger modulation of IgG secretion from chicken lacrimal gland. Adv Exp Med Biol 350:133-9

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