Developmental expression of transcriptional regulators in αA-CLEF mice at E13.5.

Cryosections of wild-type (A, C, E, G, I, K) and αA-CLEF (B, D, F, H, J) embryos stained for DAPI (C, D), for early differentiation marker Prox1 (A, B), Sox1 (E, F), for marker of fiber cell differentiation c-Maf (I, J), for epithelial cell marker Pax6 (G, H) and its target Foxe3 (K, L), with parallel DAPI counterstaining. There is no difference in the distribution of fiber cell nuclei or in the expression of Foxe3, Sox1, Prox1 and c-Maf. (H) Pax6 expression persists in the fiber cell compartment of the lens of αA-CLEF embryo (indicated with green arrowheads), whereas its expression is lost in the equatorial region of lens during fiber cell differentiation in wild-type embryos (G). Scale bars indicate 50 µm. Abbreviations: fc, fiber cell compartment; eq, equatorial region.