Lens Cells

I am a science teacher teaching 11 year old students cells... one of my students asked me today if our eye lenses are made of cells too!! Are they? They have no blood supply, they do not (i believe) regenerate... so what are they?
- cristina (age 38)
Birchwood High School , England

Yup, the lenses of your eyes are made up of cells. They have no nuclei nor organelles after birth, but when they differentiated from stem cells as a fetus is gestating, they did have more of the usual properties of cells. After birth, they are precisely aligned, transparent cells which do metabolize nutrients (the nutrients are supplied via the aqueous humor) but which cannot reproduce.

Tom

(published on 10/22/2007)