Soemmerring's rings developed in‐vivo can present internal transparent areas

Purpose: To test whether any part of Soemmerring's rings developed, in‐vivo, in adults could be transparent and how this transparency relates to morphological factors. Methods: Sixteen Soemmerring's rings were extracted from donor eye globes. After frontal imaging, they were thickly sectioned sagittally in order to analyse the degrees of transparency of the cross‐section both at the periphery and center. All samples were also histologically analysed using alpha smooth muscle actin, Vimentin, wheat germ agglutinin and DAPI in order to correlate transparency to certain morphological factors. Results: When viewed frontally within the dark field, all Soemmerring's ring samples were apparently opaque. However, after sectioning, 20 of the 30 samples were more transparent in the center than at the periphery. Of the morphological factors that we analysed, only lens fibre organization at the bow region and an increased area of mature lens fibre cells had a significant relation to the degree of transparency at the center of cross‐sections. Conclusions: Soemmerring's rings can maintain the ability to produce organized and transparent areas of lens cells.