Fig. 4: Dominant role of Adra1a in SNS-controlled tear secretion. | Nature Communications

Fig. 4: Dominant role of Adra1a in SNS-controlled tear secretion.

From: A gatekeeper sympathetic control of lacrimal tear secretion and dry eye onset through the NA-Adra1a-Ucp2 pathway

Fig. 4

a mRNA transcripts of adrenergic receptors in mouse lacrimal gland, n = 3 samples per group. b Changes of tear secretion (n = 4 mice per group. 3 d Tamsulosin vs Vehicle P = 0.0036, BMY7378 vs Vehicle P = 0.3396, Propranolol vs Vehicle P = 0.1924, 7 d Tamsulosin vs Vehicle P = 0.0008, BMY7378 vs Vehicle P = 0.8970, Propranolol vs Vehicle P = 0.8970). c Changes of corneal fluorescein staining (n = 5 mice per group. Tamsulosin vs Vehicle P < 0.0001, BMY7378 vs Vehicle P = 0.3304, Propranolol vs Vehicle P = 0.9642). d Verification of expression in the lacrimal gland of Adra1a, Adra1d, and Adrb2 heterozygous knockout mice (n = 3 mice per group. Adra1a P = 0.0012, Adra1d P = 0.0002, Adrb2 P = 0.0002). e Changes of tear secretion (n = 5 mice per group. 3 d WT vs Adra1a+/- P = 0.1578, Adra1d+/- vs Adra1a+/- P = 0.0773, Adrb2+/- vs Adra1a+/- P = 0.0243, 7 d WT vs Adra1a+/- P < 0.0001, Adra1d+/- vs Adra1a+/- P < 0.0001, Adrb2+/- vs Adra1a+/- P < 0.0001). f Changes of corneal fluorescein staining (n = 5 mice per group. WT vs Adra1a+/- P = 0.0059, Adra1d+/- vs Adra1a+/- P = 0.0059, Adrb2+/- vs Adra1a+/- P = 0.0023). g Representative images of immunolabeling using anti-Adra1a with anti-aSMA (myoepithelial cell marker), anti-AQP5 (acinar cell marker) and anti-Axna1 (ductal cell marker). Scale bars, 10 µm. The experiment was repeated at least three times independently with a similar result. h Schematic diagram of conditional knockdown in Acta2-cre and Mist1-creERT2 mice. Created in BioRender. Wang, Q. (2025) https://BioRender.com/9ivs458. i Changes of tear secretion (n = 5 mice per group. 3 d P = 0.0012, 7 d P < 0.0001). j Changes of corneal fluorescein staining (n = 6 mice per group. P = 0.0252). k Changes of tear secretion (n = 5 mice per group. 3 d P = 0.0018, 7 d P = 0.0032). l Changes of corneal fluorescein staining (n = 6 mice per group. P < 0.0001). m Schematic diagram of local silodosin delivery near lacrimal gland. Created in BioRender. Wang, Q. (2025) https://BioRender.com/q5tdk4d. n Changes of tear secretion (n = 8 mice per group. 3 d P < 0.0001, 7 d P < 0.0001). o Changes of corneal fluorescein staining (n = 8 mice per group. P = 0.0001). Data are shown as mean ± SEM. The significance of differences was detected using one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s test at each timepoint (b, c, e, f), and unpaired two-sided Student’s t test (d, i, j, k, l, n, o), *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ns, not significant. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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