Repressed Wnt Signaling Accelerates the Aging Process in Mouse Eyes

Figure 6

sFRP1 induces polymegethism and pleomorphism in the corneal endothelium. Original (a, b) and processed (c, d) images of the corneal endothelium of the control and KR/sFRP1 mice. Colored nodules represent the stress fibers (c, d). The structure from the control corneas was uniform with very few broken strands, while the thickness of the intercellular cytoskeleton bands varied greatly in KR/sFRP1 corneas with many broken strands. The size of the cells and the stress fibers is summarized in (e) and (f). The average size of corneal endothelial cells was 419 ± 60 square microns () vs. 503 ± 63 square microns () in KR/sFRP1 eyes (). The average size of stress fiber per cell was also significantly increased in KR/sFRP1 eyes (20 ± 23 square microns () vs. 34 ± 25 square microns (); ). These findings demonstrate polymegethism and pleomorphism consistent with aging eyes.