Osmotic swelling is a common feature of many cataracts. Sugar cataracts and hereditary mouse cataracts are two types in which osmotic changes play a prominent role. In sugar cataracts, the initial swelling brought about by polyol accumuation leads to an imbalance in the pump-leak equilibrium. The pump mechanism becomes unable to keep pace with the leaky membranes. The marked increases in Na and...

SUMMARY Previous reports have suggested that partial maternal deficiency of galactose metabolising enzymes, particularly of galactokinase activity, could contribute to the formation of cataracts during developmental life, even in a fetus that is enzymatically normal. We have assayed erythrocyte galactokinase and uridyltransferase activities in 12 families with children suffering early onset cat...

Assay of the activities of hexokinase, phosphofructokinase, and pyruvate kinase showed that the first two declined in aging human lens cortex and all three enzymes retained constant activities in the epithelium throughout life. Moreover, both clear and cataractous aging lenses contained the same enzyme activities. ATP contents in cataracts, however, were lower than in clear lenses; in fact, aft...

BACKGROUND Cataracts are generally known to occur in hyperglycemic conditions in diabetic patients. In this case, cataract occurred in the course of glucose level control in a patient who had been in a hyperglycemic state. CASE PRESENTATION A 42-year-old Korean man who had uncontrolled diabetes for more than a year presented with bilateral posterior subcapsular cataracts, which developed with...

Induction of cataracts by occupational exposure in flight crew has been an important topic of interest in aerospace medicine in the past five years, in association with numerous reports of flight-associated disease incidences. Due to numerous confounding variables, it has been difficult to determine if there is increased cataract risk directly caused by interaction with the flight environment, ...

Purpose We compared the anterior segment characteristics of congenital cataract (CC) patients with lens opacities in different locations and proposed a modified, simple CC category system. Methods Cataractous eyes of CC patients were classified into four groups based on the locations of lens opacities shown in slit-lamp examinations and by a 3-dimensional anterior segment imaging system as fo...

Cataract is multi-factorial eye disease identified by the disturbance of the transparent ocular lens. There is significant evidence suggesting oxidative damage as a major cause of initiation and progression of numerous diseases including cataracts. NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1; OMIM: 125860) and catalase (CAT, OMIM: 115500) are antioxidant enzymes that prevent cells from oxidative str...

Antioxidant vitamins supplements have been suggested as a strategy to decrease the risk of age-related cataract development. However, the results from observational studies and interventional trials of associations between antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E and cataract development have been inconsistent. We aim to evaluate the effectiveness of multivitamin/mineral supplements for decreasing the ...

This prospective study of 96 individuals from 29 families with neurofibromatosis 2, 49 of whom were affected, confirms in an extended series the previously reported association between posterior subcapsular/capsular cataract and neurofibromatosis 2. Posterior subcapsular/capsular cataracts were found in 36 (80%) of the 45 affected individuals (four individuals were excluded from statistical ana...