Figure 3.

Fiber cell packing arrangement in the cortical region (layer 4) of wild-type lenses. The fiber cells are highly elongated, with a flattened, hexagonal cross section. Fingerlike protrusions extend from the six cell vertices. The undulating morphology of one fiber cell is in phase with undulations in the cells above and below. When viewed from the lateral aspect, therefore, a column of fiber cells has a fluted appearance, with in-phase undulations forming a series of radially oriented ridges (arrows) in the tissue face (compare with Fig. 2C).