The lens capsule is a specialized thickened basement membrane that completely surrounds the lens and provides anchoring sites for zonules, the filamentous bodies that suspend the lens. Like other basement membranes, the lens capsule contains collagen IV, which is a family of six polypeptides, subunits alpha1(IV)-alpha6(IV), each of which is encoded by a distinct gene. We have investigated the presence of collagen IV subunits in the developing lens capsule by using confocal immunohistochemistry and antibodies against each of the six collagen IV subunits. In murine embryos, subunits alpha1(IV), alpha2(IV), alpha5(IV) and alpha6(IV) were detected in the basement membrane surrounding the lens vesicle, and they persisted in the capsule until adulthood. In contrast, neither collagen alpha3(IV) nor alpha4(IV) was detected in the lens capsule until 2 weeks postnatal. Similarly, we detected no collagen alpha3(IV) or alpha4(IV) in lens capsules of 54-day human embryos, while collagen alpha3(IV) and alpha4(IV) were detected in adult humans. Thus, in the lens capsule, there is a developmental shift in detectable collagen IV subunits; early in development we observed subunits alpha1(IV), alpha2(IV), alpha5(IV) and alpha6(IV), which is consistent with the presence of fibrillar [alpha1alpha1alpha2] and elastic [alpha5alpha5alpha6] protomers, but later in development components of the more cross-linked [alpha3alpha4alpha5] protomer appear. An elastic lens capsule may be necessary in order to accommodate rapid lens growth in early development, whereas later in development a stronger, more cross-linked capsule may be necessary in order to tolerate the stress caused by postnatal accommodation and disaccommodation of the lens.