Figure 4 of Biswas, Mol Vis 2009; 15:1492-1508.


Figure 4. High pressure freezing of gap junctions in cortical fiber cells. Freeze-fracture TEM in conjunction with high pressure freezing shows that while gap junctions display only loosely-packed connexons in superficial cortical fibers (A), a mixture of crystalline-packed (arrows) and loosely-arranged (opened arrow) connexons can be visualized in the deeper cortical fibers of the lens without prior chemical fixation (B). This additional experimental approach is to confirm that the structural remodeling of gap junctions as observed in the chemically fixed lenses in Figure 2 and Figure 3 is a real change during fiber cell maturation. The scale bars indicate 100 nm.