Figure 1.

Side view pictures of mouse lenses between 2-30 months of age pre-compression, during coverslip compression (1, 5 and 10 coverslips) and post-compression, and the isolated lens nucleus. With age, the application of the same load compressed the older lenses less than young lenses. There is an overall increase in lens size and nucleus size with age. The axial diameter (red double-headed arrows) and the equatorial diameter (green double-headed arrows) for each lens were measured to calculate lens volume, lens aspect ratio, axial compressive strain, equatorial expansion strain, resilience and nuclear volume. In very old lenses (24-30 months), there is an area of optical discontinuity in the lens cortex (yellow arrowheads). Scale bar, 1mm.