Fig. 7. Ultrastructure of wild-type and SEY (+/) corneal epithelium.
6-week-old wild-type (A,C) and SEY (+/) (B,D) corneal epithelium are
shown at 9900x (A,B) and 15,000x (C,D) magnification. Large gaps
(asterisks in B,D) were present between cells from the suprabasal to
superficial layers in SEY (+/) epithelium. By contrast, notice the
tightly adhered cell layers in the wild-type epithelium; gaps (asterisk in C)
are present only in the most superficial layer of the wild-type epithelium.
Furthermore, the number of individual desmosomal complexes (the electron-dense
structures; arrows in C,D), are reduced, but the size of these complexes is
increased in the SEY (+/) compared with the wild-type epithelium.