Rat lens epithelial cells in vitro. II. Changes of protein patterns during aging and transformation.

Serially subcultured rat lens epithelial cells grow in different stages, which can be classified according to morphology, chromosome numbers and population kinetics. A lens-specific gamma-crystallin appears in the diploid stage, when elongated cell types are observed. One of the beta-crystallin bands (pH 5.7) disappears during aging in higher passage numbers of the diploid stage B. A weak band in the beta-crystallin region (pH 6.4), which is present in all stages, becomes very intensive in aneuploid cells of stage D, which exhibit a fibroblast-like morphology.