FIGURE 3.

The absence of α6 integrin in the developing lens suppresses specific hallmarks of lens differentiation. Mid-sagittal lens cryosections from α6^+/+ (upper panel) and α6^−/− (lower panel) mice at E18.5 were co-labeled for filensin (red), F-actin (blue) (A); α6 integrin (green), Prox1 (red), nuclei (blue) (B); α6 integrin (green), E-cadherin (red) (C); and α6 integrin (green), Aquaporin-0 (red) (e, lens epithelium; f, lens fiber cells) (D). Results show diminished expression of the lens-specific intermediate filament protein filensin (A, red) and Prox1 (B, red) nuclear expression/translocation in the lens equatorial region was also prevented in the absence of α6 integrin. E-cadherin (C, red) was misexpressed in α6^−/− lenses, persisting into the youngest differentiating cortical lens fiber cells (region noted by arrowheads). Little effect on the expression of the lens-specific differentiation protein Aquaporin-0/MIP-28 (D, red) was noted. All images were obtained by confocal microscopy. A and D and B and C, single optical slices of 1 μm thickness and 0.5 μm thickness, respectively, selected from an acquired z-stack. Scale bar = 20 μm in all images. Lens cryosections of whole eyes were examined from a minimum of three different embryos from each of the α6^+/+ and α6^−/− mice groups, thus these results are representative of three independent studies.