Lens Flashcards
What type of tissue is the Lens?
Specialized epithelial tissues
What is the process where the precise organization of the lens fiber cells is disrupted or there is damage to the proteins that ends up destroying the transparency of the lens.
Cataract formation.
What kind of cells make up the bulk of the lens?
elongated fiber cells
Which cells are on the anterior surface of the lens closest to the cornea?
Sheet of cubodial cells, the lens epithelium.
What secretes the lens capsule? What is it?
An elastic ECM that surrounds the entire lens and is secreted by cuboidial and elongated fiber cells.
Cell proliferate slowly in THIS layer that is near the equatorial margin in the lens epithelium.
Geminative Zone
Sutures are junctions between the ____ and _____ ends of the cells from the opposite side of the lens.
Apical and basal
Once fiber cells reach the sutures, they _____ elongating and their _____ ends detach from the capsule.
Elongating
Basal
True/False:
As lens differentiate, the lens continues to increase in size and synthesis continues just before organelle degradation.
False:
Synthesis CEASES just before organelle degradation.
Components of mature fiber cells must be more _____ than those in cells found in other parts of the body.
Stable
What are the inelastic microfibrils that suspend the lens?
Zonules
Zonules originate in the ______________ layer of the ciliary epithelium and insert into the ________ ________ near the equator.
Non-Pigmented
Lens capsule
Changes in the tension applied to the zonules are responsible for the alterations in lens curvature during what process?
Accommodation
What gives lens its refractive nature?
Crystallins in cells (3x higher than in normal cells)
Curvature of the surfaces
In younger individuals, refractive error is often caused by:
Corneal curvature
Length of the globe
Rarely by Lens
Light passes smoothly through lens due to (3)
- regular structure of lens fibers
- Absence of membrane-bound organelles
- Small/uniform extracellular space between fiber cells
True/False:
Although the lens absorbs increasing amounts of the longer wavelengths of visible light as it ages, the young human lens is nearly colorless.
FALSE:
Lens absorbs SHORTER wavelengths of visible light.
The absence of the natural crystalline lens, from natural causes or removal.
Aphakia
Rubella infection in first 4 weeks of pregnancy can cause this type of aphakia.
Congenital Aphakia; causes mutation in the PAX 6 gene