The formation of the human crystalline lens begins very early in embryogenesis (Fig 3-1).
At approximately 25 days of gestation, 2 lateral evaginations, called the optic vesicles, form
from the forebrain, or diencephalon. As the optic vesicles enlarge and extend laterally,
they become closely apposed and adherent to the surface ectoderm, a single layer of cuboidal
cells, in 2 patches on either side of the head.
Lens Placode
The ectoderm cells that overlie the optic vesicles become columnar at approximately
27 days of gestation. This area of thickened cells is called the lens placode. Growth factors
of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family are required for the formation of the lens
placode and for subsequent lens formation.
Lens Pit
The lens pit appears at 29 days of gestation as an indentation (infolding) of the lens placode.
The lens pit deepens and invaginates to form the lens vesicle.
Lens Vesicle
As the lens pit continues to invaginate, the stalk of cells connecting it to the surface ectoderm
degenerates by programmed cell death (apoptosis), thereby separating the lens cells
from the surface ectoderm. The resultant sphere, a single layer of cuboidal cells encased in
a basement membrane (the lens capsule), is called the lens vesicle. At the time of its formation
at 30 days' gestation, the lens vesicle is approximately 0.2 mm in diameter.
Because the lens vesicle was formed through a process of invagination of the surface
ectoderm, the apices of the cuboidal cells are oriented toward the lumen of the lens vesicle,
with the base of each cell attached to the capsule around the periphery of the vesicle. At
the same time that the lens vesicle is forming, the optic vesicle is invaginating to form the
2-layered optic cup.