Table 4.

Distribution of MyoD+/G8+ epiblast cells in control and ablated eyes

	Retina		Lens		POM
	left	right	left	right	left	right
St. 23–24: Control
#1	48	52	45	6	20	20
#2	55	28	30	10	27	11
#3	87	49	54	11	39	33
St. 23–24: Ablated
#2, Table 3	5	0	10	0	0	1
#7, Table 3	5	0	0	0	1	0
#9, Table 3	14	4	2	1	0	0

All sections through the eyes of three stages 23–24 control embryos and three embryos in which MyoD+ cells were ablated in the epiblast were labeled with the G8 MAb and/or dendrimers to MyoD mRNA. The number of G8 and/or MyoD mRNA positive cells was determined in the retina, lens and periocular mesenchyme (POM). In control embryos, the left lens consistently contained more MyoD+ epiblast cells than the right lens. Two out of three control embryos contained fewer cells in the right than left neural retina. The numbers assigned to the ablated embryos correspond to the numbers of the embryos described in Table 3. Ablation of MyoD+ cells in the epiblast reduced or eliminated MyoD+ cells in ocular tissues. Fewer MyoD+ epiblast cells were present in the right eyes of ablated embryos than the left eyes.