Fig. 2.

Morphology of the eyeless mouse—a model for microphthalmia. a The mutant mice have closed eyelids with very small eyes (microphthalmia). b–e Heterozygous and homozygous eyeless mutants are compared at embryonic day 14.5. In the upper panel, it is obvious that the eye of the homozygous mutant (c) is much smaller than the wild-type eye (b). In the lower panel, a transverse section through the eye is given (H/E staining): in contrast to the regularly formed wild-type eye (d), the eye of the homozygous mutants (e) is highly disorganized: the cornea is thicker, the lens is largely missing (only a remnant is present), and the retina is hypertrophic filling most of the vitreous body. Bar = 250 µm. C cornea, L lens, ON optic nerve, R retina.

Modified, from Rosemann et al. 2010, with permission from Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009