Figure 5

Salivary gland function and saliva cytokine analysis. (a) Saliva flow rates of the 10 groups. The saliva flow rate was expressed as microliters of saliva secreted per minute per gram of mouse body weight. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey post hoc test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001 indicate statistically significant differences between the specific group and the NT9 group. Horizontal lines indicate the mean. Symbols refer to individual mice treated with lymphotoxin-beta receptor-immunoglobulin fusion protein (LTβR-Ig) (□), mouse monoclonal IgG1 (MOPC 21) (○), or no treatment (Δ). Each symbol indicates data from one mouse. (b) Heat map of saliva cytokines showing fluctuations in the levels of cytokines in the control mice groups and LTβR-Ig-treated mice over time. The mean cytokine level of each mouse group was determined and Z-score standardization was computed for each cytokine using SPSS version 15.0. The heat map was drawn in Excel^® 2003. IL, interleukin; MIP-1α, macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor.