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Elicitation of lens formation from the ‘ventral iris’ epithelium of the newt by a carcinogen, N -methyl- N ′-nitro- N -nitrosoguanidine

1973; The Company of Biologists; Volume: 30; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1242/dev.30.1.63

1477-9129

Goro Eguchi, Kenji Watanabe,

Marine Biology and Environmental Chemistry

ABSTRACT A potent carcinogenic compound, N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (NG), was administered to the lentectomized eyes of the newt, Triturus pyrrhogaster. Supernumerary lenses were formed from the dorsal iris and even from the ventral iris, which never transforms into lens following simple surgical lentectomy or the grafting of isolated iris pieces into lentectomized eyes. After the administration of NG the pigmented epithelial cells of the ventral iris were induced to gain the competence for transformation into lens cells. The induced competence of the iris epithelial cells was stably maintained for at least 12 months. The secondary regeneration of the lens 45 days or 12 months after the primary lentectomy took place at the same positions of the ventral area of the iris where the primary lens regeneration had been induced by NG. The effects of NG were also confirmed by implanting isolated pieces of iris treated with NG solution into lentectomized eyes. Five implants out of 42 available experiments on the ventral half of the iris were found to be transformed into lens.