A previous study in chickens revealed that myosin light chain kinase (MLCK), f actin, and myosin are found on the crystalline lens. Their polygonal arrangement at the posterior surface resembles a muscle tissue, which suggests that these proteins may have a contractile role in accommodation. The ciliary muscle in chickens is skeletal in nature and, therefore, chickens were used to test the hypothesis that contractile microfilaments play a role in accommodation. Ciliary nerve-induced accommodation was measured in the presence of an MLCK inhibitor 1-(5-Iodonaphthalene-1-sulfonyl)-1H-hexahydro-1,4-diazepine hydrochloride (ML-7). Eyes of 6-day old white Leghorn chickens (gallus gallus domesticus) were enucleated in Tyrode’s saline solution while keeping the ciliary nerve intact. One eye was treated with ML-7 and the other eye was treated with vehicle only. Three concentrations of ML-7 were used: 1 µM, 10 µM, and 100 µM. Two experiments were carried out, one including a (3×10 min) wash and one without. Focal lengths of the vehicle- and ML-7-treated eyes were measured before, during and after accommodation. Immunoblots were used to detect the amount of phosphorylated myosin with and without the inhibitor. Focal lengths for accommodation were shorter than those at rest (p<0.001). In the wash experiment, vehicle-treated eyes had higher accommodative amplitudes compared to ML-7-treated eyes for all three dosage groups. In the no-wash experiment, only the 1 µM group demonstrated the same trend as the wash experiment. For the 10 µM and 100 µM groups, ML-7-treated eyes had higher accommodative amplitudes compared to vehicle-treated eyes. Immunoblots revealed varying amounts of inhibition within pairs of eyes as well as between birds for both experiments. Results from this experiment indicate that ML-7 was not effective at determining whether contractile microfilaments found on the lens contribute to accommodation.

A previous study in chickens revealed that myosin light chain kinase (MLCK), f actin, and myosin are found on the crystalline lens. Their polygonal arrangement at the posterior surface resembles a muscle tissue, which suggests that these proteins may have a contractile role in accommodation. The ciliary muscle in chickens is skeletal in nature and, therefore, chickens were used to test the hypothesis that contractile microfilaments play a role in accommodation. Ciliary nerve-induced accommodation was measured in the presence of an MLCK inhibitor 1-(5-Iodonaphthalene-1-sulfonyl)-1H-hexahydro-1,4-diazepine hydrochloride (ML-7). Eyes of 6-day old white Leghorn chickens (gallus gallus domesticus) were enucleated in Tyrode’s saline solution while keeping the ciliary nerve intact. One eye was treated with ML-7 and the other eye was treated with vehicle only. Three concentrations of ML-7 were used: 1 µM, 10 µM, and 100 µM. Two experiments were carried out, one including a (3×10 min) wash and one without. Focal lengths of the vehicle- and ML-7-treated eyes were measured before, during and after accommodation. Immunoblots were used to detect the amount of phosphorylated myosin with and without the inhibitor. Focal lengths for accommodation were shorter than those at rest (p<0.001). In the wash experiment, vehicle-treated eyes had higher accommodative amplitudes compared to ML-7-treated eyes for all three dosage groups. In the no-wash experiment, only the 1 µM group demonstrated the same trend as the wash experiment. For the 10 µM and 100 µM groups, ML-7-treated eyes had higher accommodative amplitudes compared to vehicle-treated eyes. Immunoblots revealed varying amounts of inhibition within pairs of eyes as well as between birds for both experiments. Results from this experiment indicate that ML-7 was not effective at determining whether contractile microfilaments found on the lens contribute to accommodation.