Library · Anatomy
Lacrimal gland
Make it clearer
The lacrimal gland is the one that makes the watery part of tears. It is bilobed, meaning it has two lobes, and it sits in the lacrimal fossa, a depression in the frontal bone at the top of the orbit, toward the temple.
Inside the gland, the most abundant tissue is made up of serous acini: clusters of cells, like grapes packed on a single stem, that produce a clear, watery fluid. That fluid is the aqueous component of tears, and it supplies most of their volume.
But a tear is not just water. The tear film, the layer that covers the front of the eye, is made of stacked layers: a mucin layer on the inside, against the cornea; the aqueous layer in the middle, which is the one that comes from this gland; and a lipid, or fatty, layer on the outside. Together they protect the surface of the eye and keep it smooth.
In brief
The lacrimal gland is a bilobed gland that sits in the lacrimal fossa of the frontal bone, and its main function is to secrete the aqueous portion of the tear film.
Its serous acini, the predominant tissue of the gland, produce that aqueous component, which supplies most of the volume of the tear fluid.
The tear film has an inner mucin layer, a middle aqueous layer, and an outer lipid layer, and it protects and smooths the ocular surface.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingAnatomy, Head and Neck: Eye Lacrimal Gland, StatPearlsPublished
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