Figure 2 of Chamberlain, Mol Vis 2008; 14:983-991.


Figure 2. Histology of lens epithelial explants cultured with the nitric oxide inhibitor L-NAME. Explants were cultured in the control medium (A and D) or in the control medium supplemented with 5 mM L-NAME (B and E) or D-NAME (C and F). Representative explants were fixed on day 5 of culture and stained with methylene blue-hematoxylin (A-C) and Hoechst dye (D-F). Explants cultured in the control medium (A) or the control medium with D-NAME (C) were completely covered with a monolayer of closely packed cells in the cobblestone array typical of the normal lens epithelium whereas in the L-NAME-treated explants (B) large regions of lens capsule were denuded of cells (denoted by an asterisk). Nuclei in explants cultured in the control medium alone and the D-NAME-treated explants were relatively uniform in shape and evenly stained with Hoechst dye (D and F) whereas nuclei in the L-NAME-treated explants (E) showed crescent-like staining with Hoechst dye (arrow) or nuclear fragmentation (arrowheads). The bar represents 80 μm in A-C and 35 μm in D-F. NAME stands for Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester.