Figure 3

Pax6-Ras transgenic mice show altered lens and corneal development. Heads of E10.5 (A-B'), E11.5 (C-D'), E13.5 (E-F'), E16.5 (G-H') and E18.5 (I-J') nontransgenic (NT) and Pax6-Ras transgenic mice were sectioned and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Panels A-J' are higher magnifications of boxed regions in A-J respectively. Asterisks in panels D, D' indicate sectioning artifacts. Arrows in B, B', D and D', point to abnormal clusters of cells in the interior of the lens. Arrow in G' points to the corneal endothelium. Arrows in J point to the vacuoles within the lens. Lens epithelial hyperplasia was seen in the Ras transgenic embryos (arrow in F') and Ras transgenic lenses failed to detach from the surface ectoderm (D, D'). Eyelids failed to close in Ras transgenic embryos (H) and the corneal stromal cells were disorganized (F, H, J). K, L. Activated caspase 3 was detected by immunohistochemistry (L, arrows). Antigen-antibody complexes are in red and the nuclei are stained blue with DAPI. Abbreviations; C, corneal epithelium; Cj, conjunctival epithelium; eyl, eyelid; le, lens epithelium; lf, lens fibers; lp, lens pit; nr, neural retina. The scale bar (E') represents 50 μm in panels A, B, C, D, K, L, 100 μm in panels E, F, 25 μm in A'-H' and 250 μm in panels G-J.