An estimate of the human lens epithelial cell size in vivo

There are few previous estimates of the size of the human lens epithelium. In this study the lens epithelium is measured by specular reflex photography with a macro camera. The results are corrected for cornea magnification. One hundred subjects were studied ranging in age from 11 to 75 and including 20 diabetics and 18 subjects with cataract. The results show a range of epithelial cell diameters from 8-21 microns with 97% of the measurements lying in the 9-17 microns range. Pleomorphism is marked. The mean cell size was 12.7 microns. Large differences exist in mean cell size between individuals, but no correlation was found with age, diabetes or cataract.