The nuclear envelope in the crystalline lens fiber cell

Rabbit lenses which have been fixed, dehydrated, and dried by a critical-point drying method, can be fractured through the cytoplasm of the differentiating lens fibers, exposing the cell nuclei. The fracture, under these conditions, causes a complete separation of the two membranes of the nuclear envelope from one another, thus exposing entire membrane surfaces (those which line the perinuclear space). These surfaces are not seen in their entirety in typical freeze-fracture or freeze-etch preparations, and consequently have not been described previously. The exposed membrane surfaces which line the perinuclear space have numerous convex structures of approximately 1,000 A, and some larger more irregularly shaped structures. These appear to be fragments of the nuclear pore complexes. Differences in these structures between young fibers and those nearing completion of differentiation is suggested.