The origin of senile lens exfoliation.

The uninvolved lens was removed from a patient with unilateral lens exfoliation, and electron microscopic examination of the lens confirmed the absence of exfoliation. Five years later white granules appeared on the vitreous face, and when the eye was removed at autopsy a further 4 years later typical exfoliation fibres were found in close association with the epithelium of the iris and the ciliary body and in clumps in the vitreous.