A comparison of two buffering systems for lens organ culture.

Bovine lenses were incubated in a pairwise assay for 24 h in TC 199 which was buffered with Hepes or NaHCO3, respectively. In lenses incubated with Hepes, the content of ATP was higher and that of AMP lower than in those incubated with NaHCO3. The specific activity of phosphofructokinase (PFK), was higher in the lenses from the Hepes medium than in lenses incubated with NaHCO3. A heat-labile metazyme of the PFK which is found in the nucleus of unincubated lenses disappeared when the lenses were incubated in the presence of bicarbonate, but remained intact after 22 h incubation with Hepes.