Fig. 23. Liquefaction of human vitreous. The volumes of gel and liquid vitreous in 610 fresh, unfixed human eyes were measured postmortem. The results are plotted versus the age of the donor. Liquid vitreous appears by the age of 5 years and increases throughout life until it constitutes more than 50% of the volume of the vitreous during the tenth decade. Gel vitreous volume increases during the first decade while the eye is growing in size. The volume of gel vitreous then remains stable until about the age of 40 years, when it begins to decrease parallel with the increase in liquid vitreous. (From Balazs EA, Denlinger JL. Aging changes in the vitreous. In Sekular R, Kline D, Dismukes N, eds. Aging and Human Visual Function. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1982:45, with permission)