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).

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