Fig. 3

Ex vivo evaluation of spontaneous and evoked activities of the ciliary nerve from sham and DED mice. a Electrophysiological trace illustrating the extracellular activity of the ciliary nerve fiber with the various heat ramps; time scale = 5 s. Histograms showing the mean value of spontaneous (32°C) and evoked (20°C and 40°C) firing frequency of ciliary nerves: b at 20, 32, and 40°C. Representative histograms and electrophysiological traces to illustrate extracellular activity of the ciliary nerve: c, d at 20°C; d, f at 32°C; and g, h at 40°C in sham and DED mice; time scale = 2 s. Histograms showing the mean value for the spontaneous firing frequency of ciliary nerves: i at pH 5, 6, and 7.4 in both groups. Representative histograms and electrophysiological traces to illustrate extracellular activity of the ciliary nerve: j, k at pH 5; l, m at pH 6; and N, O at pH 7.4 in sham and DED mice; time scale = 2 s. All experiments were conducted on d21. Total number of mice = 27. Number of mice included in the analysis = 26. Thermal stimulation: n = 13 sham and DED animals; acid stimulation: n = 10 sham and DED animals. All experiments were conducted on d21. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 relative to the sham group. ^^^ < 0.001 sham at 20°C and 32°C. $$$ < 0.001 DED at 20°C and 32°C. ## < 0.01 sham at pH 5 and 7.4. ### < 0.001 sham at pH 6 and 7.4. Results are expressed as the mean ± SEM. For statistical analysis, the sham vs DED groups were compared for each condition using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, followed by the parametric t-test, using GraphPad Prism version 7.00 (GraphPad Software, La Jolla, CA, USA)