Abstract
PAPACONSTANTINOU has clearly shown that differentiation of lens epithelial cells into fibre cells involves a complex series of morphological and biochemical events1; however, at the molecular level the factors involved in the initiation of this differentiation are almost entirely unknown. The purification and characterisation of the mRNA species specifying bovine lens proteins2 have made desirable the development of a system in which details of lens differentiation could be studied. Such a system for the study of lens epithelial cell differentiation in tissue culture should have the following characteristics: (1) The differentiation should demonstrate characteristic morphological changes which can be correlated with those expected of the process in vivo; (2) specific proteins characteristic of the differentiated tissue should be absent in epithelial cells inoculated into the culture and should appear during the course of the morphological changes; (3) it should be possible to maintain the epithelial cells in culture in an undifferentiated state by the criteria of unaltered morphology and the absence of specific proteins), and to induce them to differentiate in response to a specific set of conditions; (4) clones of epithelial cells should show characteristics similar to freshly explanted epithelial cells. In addition to these criteria, a useful characteristic of the system would be an accelerated or inhibited differentiation in response to hormones of cyclic nucleotides.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Papaconstantinou, J., Science, 156, 338–346 (1967).
Berns, T. J. M., Schreurs, V. A. M., van Kraaikamp, M. W. G., and Bloemendal, H., Eur. J. Biochem., 33, 551–557 (1973).
Shubert, E. E., Trevithick, J. R., and Hollenberg, M. J., Can. J. Ophthamol., 5, 353–365 (1971).
Wahrmann, J. P., Winand, R., and Luzatti, D., Nature new Biol., 245, 112–113 (1973).
Daniel, V., Litwack, G., and Tomkins, G. M., Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 70, 76–79 (1973).
Ryan, W. L., and Hudreck, M. L., Science, 162, 1484–1485 (1968).
Johnson, G. S., and Pastan, I., J. natn. Cancer Inst., 48, 1377–1387 (1972).
Bombik, B. M., and Burger, M. M., Expl Cell. Res., 80, 88–94 (1973).
Prasad, K. N., and Hsie, A. W., Nature new Biol., 233, 141–143 (1971).
Ortiz, J. R., Yamada, T., and Hsie, A. W., Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 70, 2286–2290 (1973).
Hovi, T., and Vaheri, A., Nature new Biol., 245, 175–176 (1973).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
CREIGHTON, M., TREVITHICK, J. Effect of cyclic AMP, caffeine and theophylline on differentiation of lens epithelial cells. Nature 249, 767–768 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/249767a0
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/249767a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
A novel model for studying lens fiber elongation
In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Animal (1996)
-
Cyclic AMP as a mitogenic signal for cultured rat Schwann cells
Nature (1978)
-
Effect of dibutyryl cAMP and theophylline on cultured rat embryonic shields
Experientia (1977)