Interaction between mesenchymal cells and the posterior iris epithelium in chicken embryos

The iris anlage of 3--10 day old chicken embryos was studied by both light and electron microscopy. Serial semithin sections showed that some of the mesenchymal cells overlying the eye cup moved into the primitive eye cavity by the 3rd day of incubation. On the 4th day some of these cells came into close contact with the basement membrane of the dorsal iris epithelium. The bases of the epithelial cells were flat at this stage. Towards the 10th day they formed cytoplasmic processes which did not penetrate the basement membrane. Fine mesenchymal cytoplasmic processes and a large number of extracellular fibrils developed in the epithelial--mesenchymal interface. The fine mesenchymal processes …