Spatio‐temporal distribution of acidic and basic FGF indicates a role for FGF in rat lens morphogenesis

Abstract

As part of an investigation into the role FGF in lens development, we have studied the distribution of both aFGF and bFGF during eye morphogenesis from embryonic days 10 to 18 (E10–E18) in the rat. For aFGF, reactivity was found only in ectoderm at E10, prior to contact between the optic vesicle and presumptive lens ectoderm. During lens placode formation (E11) there was a transient, diffuse reactivity for aFGF in anterior optic vesicle cells directly apposed to the labelled ectoderm of the lens placode. At E12 the diffuse reactivity of the lens placode had changed to a discrete localisation along the basolateral surfaces of differentiating cells in the lens pit. Similar reactivity was assoc..