A 19-year-old student

comes to the eye clinic with a very common problem today. He suffers from

cutting and burning eyes, the feeling of a foreign body in the eye, pressure,

and the feeling of tired eyes. The eyes are red. He is diagnosed with dry eye

syndrome. This can have many causes, and one of them is low tear production,

for example, as a result of taking certain medications. Tears are produced by

the lacrimal gland. The lacrimal gland is an exocrine gland. Its cells have a

basophilic cytoplasm and a round nucleus located in the basal third of the

cell. The basal part of the cells shows significant basophilia due to the

accumulation of polyribosomes and granular endoplasmic reticulum for the

production of proteins that are part of the produced secretion. The cells

contain zymogen granules, which are mostly released in a merocrine manner. What

type of gland is a lacrimal gland?