The images illustrate the ordered packing of these cells (A–C), their hexagonal profile with two longer and four short faces (C) to each cell, and the membrane protrusions at the apex of each short face (B, arrows). Each fiber cell in the outermost layers of the lens is precisely aligned with its neighbors (A, arrows). In cross section, the honeycomb appearance of each fiber cell facilitates tight packing to adjacent cells, thus minimizing intercellular spaces and reducing light scatter. Lens fiber cells are highly elongated, each fiber cell extending from the anterior to posterior pole of the lens, with the length being in excess of 10⁴ μm (see Figure 3). This means that in addition to being elongated, lens fiber cells are also polarized, with distinct apical (anterior-located) and basal (posterior-located) ends. To ensure the correct interdigitation of neighboring fiber cells, there are plasma membrane protrusions concentrated at the apices of the short faces of lens fiber cells (B, arrows). These are most easily seen when the fracture plane has exposed successive layers of fiber cells (B). At high magnification, a regular pattern is seen on the plasma membranes comprising the long faces of the lens fiber cell hexagonal profile. At a molecular level, these surfaces contain the two different plasma membrane complexes, with N-cadherin and cadherin-11 complexes located on the shorter faces and the periplakin, periaxin, ezrin, and desmoyokin complex concentrated along the long face (C) (68). Scale bars: 50 μm, 20 μm, and 20 μm in A, B, and C, respectively.