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From the Departments of 1 Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and 2 Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. The gene for Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) was introduced into the lens vesicle using two different vector systems: a replication deficient adenovirus or an expression plasmid. Injected embryos were allowed to develop for several days and then were examined by confocal microscopy.
RESULTS. Injection of either vector resulted in GFP expression in primary fiber cells. GFP-expressing cells were heterogeneous in shape and length. Some regions of the fibers were varicose, with diameters >10 µm; regions between the varicosities were often extremely thin, with diameters of <2 µm. No differences in the morphologies of GFP-expressing cells were noted between adenovirus- and plasmid-injected lenses, suggesting that the irregular, undulating, appearance of the primary fibers was not the result of viral infection. Three-dimensional reconstruction of primary fiber cells revealed that, by E6, the posterior tips of the fibers had detached from the lens capsule. The anterior fiber tips remained in contact with the overlying epithelium for 1 to 2 additional days, demonstrating that the formation of the anterior and posterior sutures was asynchronous.
CONCLUSIONS. The three-dimensional cellular organization of GFP-expressing cells is consistent with previous analyses of fiber cell morphology in the embryonic nucleus of adult human and bovine lenses. The present data confirm that the disorganized appearance of primary fiber cells observed in adult lenses is largely a reflection of developmental processes rather than a consequence of aging.
| Introduction |
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Compared to the regular and well-ordered layers of secondary fiber cells, the primary fiber cells are known to be a rather heterogeneous cell population. In human lenses, for example, electron microscopic analysis of lenses revealed that the cross-sectional area of primary fiber cells was 80 ± 68 µm2 (mean ± SD) with a range of 7 to 308 µm2.1 In contrast, the cross-sectional area of secondary fiber cells in the cortex of the lens was found to be much more uniform (24 ± 9 µm2). In another study, light microscopic analysis of bovine lenses also indicated that the cross-sectional profiles of primary fiber cells were very heterogeneous, with an average value of 63 ± 61 µm2.2 These data suggest that the cellular morphology and organization of primary fiber cells is very different from that of the secondary fiber cells, which make up the majority of the tissue volume. Although the architecture of the lens nucleus has been studied extensively by scanning electron microscopy,3 4 5 the three-dimensional organization of individual primary fiber cells has not been fully elucidated. Consequently, the cellular features that give rise to the large, observed variations in cross-sectional area have yet to be determined. Here we report a novel approach for visualizing the three-dimensional structural organization of the primary fiber cell population in intact or sliced embryonic lens preparations. The technique involves the use of adenoviral and plasmid expression vectors carrying the gene for Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), an autofluorescent protein isolated from the jellyfish Aquorea victoria.6
| Materials and Methods |
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Expression Vectors
A replication-deficient adenovirus expression vector (AdCMV5GFP)
was obtained from a commercial supplier (Quantum Biotech Inc.,
Montreal, Canada). AdCMV5GFP contains the GFP gene under the control of
an enhanced CMV5 promoter. A plasmid expression vector (pCAGGFP15)
containing the potent hybrid CAG promoter8
was constructed
in our laboratory. We generated the pCAGGFP15 plasmid by replacing the
cytomegalovirus promoter of the pEGFPN1 expression plasmid (Clontech
Laboratories Inc., Palo Alto, CA) with the CAG promoter. Preliminary
experiments demonstrated that the pCAGGFP15 expression plasmid was more
effective at driving GFP expression in primary lens fibers than the
pEGFPN1 vector. Before injection, pDNA was purified as previously
described.9
Confocal Imaging
At intervals after injection, embryos were removed from their eggs
and examined for GFP expression in the lens. Lenses in which
GFP-expressing fiber cells were detected were fixed for 1 hour in 4%
paraformaldehyde/phosphate-buffered saline. Fixed lenses were cut into
200-µm midsagittal slices using a Vibratome (model 3000; TPI Inc.,
St. Louis, MO) as previously described.10
Slices were
viewed using a confocal microscope (LSM410; Carl Zeiss Inc., Thornwood,
NY) equipped with an argon/krypton laser. GFP fluorescence was excited
with the 488-nm laser line and detected using a 515 longpass filter.
For some samples, a series of optical sections were obtained and
reconstructed in three dimensions using software supplied with the
instrument. Cross-sectional areas of GFP-expressing fiber cells were
calculated from xz projections computed from the
three-dimensional reconstructions. As an independent method for
visualizing the cross-sectional profiles of primary lens fiber cells,
uninjected embryonic lenses were sliced perpendicular to the optical
axis and stained with the lipophilic dye,
DiOC6.11
Adult lenses were fixed,
embedded in LR white resin, and sectioned.2
Thin (1 µm)
sections were processed for immunofluorescence using an antibody to the
major intrinsic protein (MIP) as described.12
| Results |
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In xz projections, the fiber cells had rounded, cross-sectional profiles. The profiles varied considerably in area depending on whether the section plane passed through a varicose region of the cell (e.g., cell 2 in Fig. 3 ) or a thin connecting region (e.g., cell 1). For the 10 cells shown in the xz projection in Figure 3 , the cross-sectional area was 53.5 ± 58.4 µm2 (mean ± SD) with a range of 9 µm2 (cell 9) to 199 µm2 (cell 2). Cells with similar undulating morphologies also were observed in pDNA injected lenses (data not shown). The three-dimensional reconstructions revealed an irregular primary fiber cell organization. To test whether the normal morphology of these cells had been distorted by the introduction of the exogenous GFP gene, we compared cross-sectional profiles in virus-injected and uninjected lenses. In virus-injected lenses, the cross-sectional profiles were computed from xz projections of the image stack. Uninjected embryonic lenses were sectioned in the equatorial plane and stained with the lipophilic probe DiOC6 to visualize the plasma membranes. The central region of a lens prepared in this fashion is shown in Figure 4 . A range of rounded, cross-sectional profiles was observed. Examples of large, medium, and small profiles are highlighted in Figure 4 . These profiles were indistinguishable in size and shape from those shown in xz projections of virus infected lenses (Fig. 3) . We also examined cross-sectional profiles of primary fiber cells in the center of adult (1-year-old) lenses using MIP immunofluorescence to visualize the fiber membranes. The size and shape of the cells in the adult lens were indistinguishable from those of the DiOC6-stained (Fig. 4A) or GFP-expressing (Fig. 3) embryonic primary fibers.
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| Discussion |
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The scattered distribution of GFP-expressing cells in
adenovirus-injected lenses was consistent with direct viral infection
of cells at the posterior of the lens vesicle. The infection rate was
low in the primary fibers and almost undetectable in the anterior
epithelium. Interestingly, GFP-expressing epithelial cells were
observed more frequently in young lenses (<E6) suggesting that the
anterior epithelial cells may be somewhat susceptible to adenoviral
infection. Presumably, infected epithelial cells either stop
synthesizing GFP at later developmental stages or die, perhaps by
virally induced apoptosis. In preliminary studies, we verified the
efficacy of the adenovirus vector in HeLa cell cultures. At
approximately the same multiplicity of infection as used in lens
injections, we observed infection rates of 30% to 40% (data not
shown). Thus, the low infection rate observed in the lens fiber cells
was not due to lack of virulence in the adenovirus vector. Recently, a
cellular adenovirus receptor was cloned from HeLa cells.15
The receptor is a 46-kDa cell-surface protein termed CAR
(coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor). The CAR protein mediates
high-affinity binding of the adenoviral fiber protein to the cell
surface. Cells that lack the CAR receptor, such as ciliated airway
epithelia, are resistant to adenovirus infection.16
Subsequent to binding to CAR, efficient internalization of the virus
also may depend on the presence of
3ß3 or
vß5
integrins.17
Thus, the low infection rate of primary
fibers cells and the negligible infection rate in epithelia could be
due to lack of the CAR receptor and/or the absence of particular
integrins.
An interesting feature of primary fiber cell organization revealed in the present study is the manner in which the fiber tips detach from the capsule. Detachment from the posterior capsule does not appear to be a coordinated event. At E6, some primary fiber cell posterior tips are still attached to the capsule, whereas others (often those of neighboring cells) have detached and terminate on the lateral membranes of adjacent cells. Thus, not all primary fiber cells extend from the anterior to the posterior of the embryonic nucleus. These studies also confirm that the anterior and posterior sutures do not form concomitantly. The formation of the posterior suture precedes that of the anterior suture by 1 to 2 days.
Injection of virus or pDNA resulted in GFP expression in a limited number of primary fiber cells. This allowed individual GFP-expressing cells to be optically isolated and imaged in a wild-type background. The most striking feature of primary fiber cell morphology revealed by this approach was the heterogeneity of this cell population. In contrast to secondary fiber cells (which have a very uniform morphology), primary fiber cells were shown to be extremely diverse in size and shape. Some regions of the cells were swollen (e.g., the posterior tips of the cells or the portion that accommodated the nucleus); others were extremely thin and tenuous. The morphology of the primary fiber cells was so distinct from that commonly observed in secondary fiber cells that it is appropriate to ask whether the features observed here could be an artifact. Several lines of evidence argue against this. First, the features were observed using both pDNA and viral vectors. Second, cross-sectional profiles computed from xz projections predicted a range of cross-sectional areas that were in excellent agreement with those measured in uninjected embryonic and adult lenses. Finally, the range of cross-sectional areas reported here was similar to that measured in thin sections of primary fiber cells prepared from the lenses of other species.1 2
In previous studies of the central region of the adult human lens (the so-called embryonic nucleus), several authors noted the irregular appearance of the primary fiber cells.1 2 In those studies, some fiber cells had very small cross-sectional areas (7 µm2), whereas others were much larger (308 µm2).1 Because of the extreme length of the fiber cells, serial reconstruction of mechanically sectioned tissue has not been attempted and consequently, it has not been possible to discriminate between the two models of fiber morphology shown in Figure 4C . The uniform and the varicose models shown in Figure 4C are both consistent with previously published cross-sectional images of primary fiber cells. The data presented here suggest that the varicose model is the more accurate representation. By comparing the morphology of primary fibers in both embryonic and adult lenses, we also have confirmed that an irregular undulating morphology is an inherent feature of the primary fiber cells from the outset. Thus, although the cells of the embryonic nucleus are the oldest fiber cells in the adult lens, their disorganized appearance cannot be attributed to the passage of time. Interestingly, the irregular morphology of the primary fiber cells does not appear to cause an increase in light scattering. Slit lamp examination of the lens nucleus suggests that this is perhaps the most transparent region of the lens.16
We have previously reported the use of cytoplasmically injected expression plasmids for introducing exogenous genes into cortical lens fibers.9 Although the injection technique was effective in secondary fibers, it was not readily applicable to the primary fiber cell population. The use of the vesicle injection technique described in this article complements the earlier study and demonstrates that cloned genes can be targeted to individual cells in geographically distinct regions of the lens.
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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Submitted for publication March 12, 1999; revised September 21, 1999; accepted October 26, 1999.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
Corresponding author: Steven Bassnett, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Box 8096, St. Louis, MO 63110. bassnett{at}vision.wustl.edu
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