Lens opacity induced by lipid peroxidation products as a model of cataract associated with retinal disease

The cataractous lenses of patients with retinitis pigmentosa have been studied by electron microscopy. The posterior subcapsular opacities showed common ultrastructural features. Large areas of disruption of the lens fibre pattern were observed which showed an increase in the number of fibre membranes per unit area. In many regions an elaborate and regular folding of membranes was noted which produced complex 'figure-of-eight' and 'tramline' patterns, as well as membranous lamellar bodies. Masses of various size globules were also identified. It has been established that injection into the vitreous body of the rabbit eye of a suspension of liposomes prepared from phospholipids containing lipid peroxidation products induces the development of posterior subcapsular cataract. Such modelling of cataract is based on a type of clouding of the crystalline lens similar to that observed in cataract resulting from diffusion of toxic lipid peroxidation products from the retina to the lens through the vitreous body on degeneration of the photoreceptors. Saturated liposomes (prepared from beta-oleoyl-gamma-palmitoyl-L-alpha-phosphatidylcholine) do not cause clouding of the lens, which demonstrates the peroxide mechanism of the genesis of this form of cataract. Clouding of the lens is accompanied by accumulation of fluorescing lipid peroxidation products in the vitreous body, aqueous humor and the lens and also by a fall in the concentration of reduced glutathione in the lens. From the results it is concluded that lipid peroxidation may initiate the development of cataract.