Fig. 14. A 3-D representation showing the structure of two neighboring fiber cells in the lens core illustrating that although the fibers are present as discrete, separate cells throughout most of their length, they are fused in zone b. Such fusion of adjacent fiber cells is likely to permit cell-to-cell movement of fairly large molecules as illustrated in Figure 13. (Shestopalov VI, Bassnett S: Expression of autofluorescent proteins reveals a novel protein permeable pathway between cells in the lens core. J Cell Sci 113:1913, 2000)