Peroxide damage to the eye lens in vitro prevention by pyruvate

The ability of pyruvate to protect the eye lens against physiological damage by hydrogen peroxide has been studied. The physiological damage was estimated in terms of a decrease in the ability of the lens to transport rubidium against an electrochemical gradient under organ culture conditions. Peroxide was either added directly to the culture medium or generated therein by incorporation of xanthine and xanthine oxidase. In both these cases, addition of pyruvate to the medium led to a greater accumulation of rubidium by the lens. The net accumulation of this cation in the presence of 1 to 5 mM pyruvate from the medium containing peroxide (0.2 to 0.45 mM) was very close to that observed in the absence of peroxide. The protective effect was thus substantial. The mechanism of the pyruvate effect has been discussed, and seems to be related to the scavenging of peroxide by pyruvate.