Fig. 17. A sagittal section through the equatorial area of a rat lens showing the characteristic bow pattern produced by the nuclei of newly elongating cells. Note the loss of stainability and eventual disappearance of the nuclei of the deep bow area (DB). This section, which is stained with toluidine blue, also illustrates the basophilia of the cytoplasm of the most superficial fibers (SB) caused by a preponderance of ribosomes. In this case, the capsule (C) stains metachromatically (pinkish purple).