The crystalline lens exhibits growth throughout life due to what process?

The crystalline lens grows throughout life primarily through the addition of new fibers. From birth onward, the lens continuously adds layers of lens fibers throughout the years, contributing to its overall size and optical properties. This growth process is essential for maintaining the lens's function, allowing it to accommodate and focus light effectively. Each new layer of fibers is added to the outer edge of the lens, ensuring that the core remains denser and more compact, which is critical for refractive clarity.

The other processes mentioned, such as decreasing in size post-adolescence, reducing in elasticity, and increasing in water content, do occur in the lens but are not responsible for its growth. While the lens may lose some elasticity with age, which affects its ability to accommodate, this is not related to its growth. Similarly, any changes in water content do not directly correspond to the ongoing addition of fibers that is the primary means of growth throughout a person’s life.