Figure 6.

Freeze-fracture TEM of ball-and-socket gap junctions in monkey lens fibers. A: A cluster of three shallow ball-and-socket gap junctions are seen in superficial fibers of a young monkey (1.5 years old). B and C: Elongated ball-and-socket gap junctions with loosely-packed connexons in superficial cortical fibers of a mature monkey (20 years old). Arrow indicates the lateral cell membrane of adjacent cell. D, E, and F: Three different arrangements of connexons are associated with ball-and-sockets in the deeper mature cortical fibers: (D) A ball-and-socket completely occupied by connexons, (E) A ball-and-socket partially occupied by connexons, and (F) A ball-and-socket occupied by fragmentary gap junction plaques with disorganized connexons. Ball-and-socket gap junctions in E and F may be in a degradation stage. The scale bars indicate 200 nm.