Fig. 6. Confocal micrographs of TUNEL staining in lens epithelial wholemounts.
Seven-day-old mouse lens epithelial wholemounts were fixed and stained with
the TUNEL staining kit. Propidium iodide was used to stain the DNA of all the
nuclei in the wholemounts: (A) wild-type lens epithelium; (B,C)
A/ lens epithelium. In the wild-type
wholemounts, TUNEL staining was rarely detected. Pairs of TUNEL-labeled cells
(green) were scattered throughout the
A/
wholemounts. Note that the TUNEL-positive nuclei were nearly always seen as
pairs. (D) Quantitative analyses of cell death in lens epithelial wholemounts.
TUNEL-positive nuclei were counted in wild-type or
A/ lens epithelial wholemounts. In the
wild-type lens epithelium, there was an average of one TUNEL stain in the
central region. In the
A/ wholemount, there
was an average of six TUNEL-stained nuclei. Data represent average of six
wild-type and six
A/ wholemounts. Bars, 25
µM (A-C).