Preparation of lens whole mounts. A. Diagram showing how the lens capsule is peeled away from the lens fiber cells. Lens epithelial cells remain firmly attached to the lens capsule; however, when the fibers are removed, in some regions, remnants of their apical ends are retained on the apical surface of the epithelial cells. B. β-catenin (green) is present at the margins of both epithelial and fiber cells but E-cadherin (purple) is specific for epithelial cells. In this whole mount, a large region near the anterior pole of the lens retains remnants of the apical ends of lens fiber cells. Abbreviations: Ep, epithelial cells; Fb, fiber cells. Adapted from Sugiyama et al, 2010.