Age-related changes of water-soluble proteins of human eye lens during the prenatal period.

Saline extracts from human lenses were studied during prenatal eye development. Using immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis with a specific antiserum against total extract of human adult lenses and monospecific antisera against the individual crystallin classes, it was established that alpha and beta crystallins were present in extracts from eye lenses from 5-week-old embryos while gamma crystallins could be detected in extracts from embryonic lenses at the beginning of the 6th gestational week. When analyzed by isoelectric focussing all alpha and beta crystallin components were found in extracts from 8-week-old embryos, while those of gamma crystallins were shown to appear successively within the period between the 8th and 14th gestational week. Some changes in the relative proportion of the different crystallin classes and subclasses were observed in the course of prenatal eye lens development between the 8th and 26th gestational week, as the percentage of alpha, high molecular weight and gamma crystallins was increased while the proportion of beta crystallins was gradually lowered.