Embryonic and postembryonic chicken lenses have been analyzed morphologically to investigate the differentiation of the lens fibers by light and electron microscopes.
Morphogenesis of the chick lens was initiated as lens epithelial cells were proliferated and proceeded to elongate the cells characteristically at posterior side, by which the disintegrations of nuclei were accompanied during the early developmental stages. Primary and secondary lens fibers were identified at the late developmental stages, while interconnections between neighboring cells well developed and denucleation commenced. On day of hatching, the chicken lens fibers contained few cell organelles within the cytoplasm and showed the homogeneity of cytoplasmic appearance. On day 10 of hatching, the lens were fully differentiated; fiber cells, in which most cell organelles except polysomes were disappeared, showed a slender and elongated prismatic shape. At that stage gap junctions were particularly developed or cytoplasmic ridges are closely interlocked between adjoining cells.
In conclusion, differentiation of chick lens involves the division of epithelial cells, the elongation into fiber cells, the loss of cell organelles and the increase of gap junction.
|