[Ultrastructural analysis of the effects of the aphakia gene in mice embryos]

A light and electron microscope studies of the lenses in ak/ak and +/+ mice at different stages of embryogenesis have shown that the earliest effect of the mutant gene ak at the subcellular level was the destructive change of the cell organelles in the early invaginating placode. As a result, the formation of the basal membrane of the lens placode cells and, later on, the lens capsule development were affected. The destructive changes of the cells were accompanied by a weakening of intercellular contacts and the transport of the degenerating cells into the lens vesicle cavity.