Figure 3

Progressive lens defects in the Panx1a mutant

(A) Presenting an OCT image of a Panx1a^+/+ healthy eye.

(B) Depicts a specific type of lens defect in the eye of an 8-month-old Panx1a^−/− fish (scale bars, 500 μm).

(C) Illustrates a different type of lens defect in the eye of a 1-year-old Panx1a^−/− fish.

(D) shows another variant of lens defect in the eye of a 1.5-year-old Panx1a^−/− fish.

(E) Presents an OCT image indicating complete aphakia, observed in a fish from the 1.5-year group. Blue rectangles mark the same area of the lens in all the B-modes. Yellow squares emphasize the same retina section in all the B-modes, and in the mutants, we can observe the retina bumps.

Yellow arrows show the lens rings, which are different in mutant eyes (B-E) compared to healthy eyes (A).

(F–I) Represent the selected lens area from the whole-eye images above each, respectively. The green arrow is pointing to the highly scattering areas.

(J) Displays a pie chart of Panx1a^−/− eyes with lens defects across different age groups, indicating an age-related increase in the occurrence of this phenotype. Panel (K) shows a 4× histological image of a 1.5-year-old Panx1a^+/+ eye, highlighting the normal lens structure, while panel (M) presents a corresponding 20× magnified view of the same area, displaying the clear lens interior and organized, square-shaped epithelial cells. In contrast, panel (L) shows a 4× histological image of a Panx1a^−/− eye with a defective lens, and panel (N) provides a 20× magnified view of the same region, revealing disorganized cellular structures within the lens, including migrated epithelial-like cells with visible nuclei.