[Immunofluorescence study of various constituents of the eyelids in rats before, during and after their closure]

We have brought the evidence for the presence of type I and III collagens and laminin in cultures of eyelid buds removed just before the onset of their junction. The patterns of distribution of laminin (localized in all basement membranes) and of the type III collagen remain constant during all the culture. Type I collagen is distributed homogeneously in the mesenchyma like type III collagen after the twelfth hour of culture. The rapid stabilization of these three distributions would be associated with the persistence of an epithelial seam limited by intact basement membranes between mesenchymal eyelids from the stage of junction to the later stage of disjunction of the eyelids.