title: Effect of stimulus on the chemical composition of human tears.
abstract: We examined the effect of the nature of the stimulus on the chemical composition of human tears. The protein concentration of emotional tears from women exceeded that of irritant-induced tears by 24% (P less than .01). Polyacrylamide disk gel electrophoresis disclosed no significant difference between the distribution of positively or negatively charged proteins of irritant-induced and emotional tears. Manganese concentrations in tears (30 ng/ml) exceeded serum concentrations from the same subjects by 30-fold. These manganese concentrations in tears were considerably less than previously reported values. We found no differences for the concentrations of protein or manganese in human tears between the sexes.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007509:Irritants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008345:Manganese / Q000032:analysis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013666:Tears / Q000032:analysis* / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D007509:Irritants; D011506:Proteins; D008345:Manganese