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Regeneration of the Lens in Amphibians

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Vertebrate Eye Development

Part of the book series: Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation ((RESULTS,volume 31))

Abstract

Some urodele amphibians are the only animals that throughout their life are capable of regenerating their lens following lentectomy (Stone 1967). Other vertebrates, such as freshwater fish, chicken, and frogs can occasionally regenerate a lens, but such an ability is very limited with a short time window during their embryonic development. Chicken can regenerate the lens only during 2–4 days of development. Interestingly, regeneration occurs from the ventral iris (van Deth 1940). In Xenopus, regeneration of the lens occurs from the inner layer of the outer cornea only before metamorphosis (Filoni et al. 1997). In mammals, the only report dealing with lens regeneration is of an adult rabbit after removal of the lens and only after implantation of cytolyzing fetal tissue (Steward and Espinasse 1959). Among urodeles the ability is not universal. The axolotl, for example, a salamander with very good regenerative abilities of the limb and tail, is not able to regenerate the lens. Such restrictions pose interesting questions as to why this selection exists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Department of Biology, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, 45469-2320, USA

    Panagiotis A. Tsonis

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  1. Panagiotis A. Tsonis
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vision Research Laboratories, New England Eye Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, 750 Washington Street, Box 450, Boston, MA, 02111, USA

    M. Elizabeth Fini Ph. D.

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Tsonis, P.A. (2000). Regeneration of the Lens in Amphibians. In: Fini, M.E. (eds) Vertebrate Eye Development. Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation, vol 31. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-46826-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-46826-4_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-53678-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46826-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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