Evaluating the Functionality of Conjunctiva Using a Rabbit Dry Eye Model

Figure 4

Quantification of mRNA and protein levels of inflammatory cytokines and MUC5AC in rabbit conjunctival impression cytology specimens BE and 1 month AE. For the proteins, the signal for the gene was normalized with the Gapdh signal from the same gene (a). For mRNA, the fold change in expression of genes is relative to endogenous control, β-actin (b). The data for mRNA of IL-1β and TNF-α (b) were referred from the previous publication [8]. The upregulation of mRNA correlated with the increase at protein level for the inflammatory cytokines and MUC5AC. Data are presented as mean Standard Error Method (SEM). For all graphs, bars show standard error (SE); statistical differences are shown (, ).

(a)

(b)