[Anything new concerning the human lens and senile cataract (author's transl)]

Many differences exist between human and animal lenses. Firstly, ATP concentrations in human lenses remain relatively unchanged during aging, despite slowing down of carbohydrate metabolism. Secondly, growth rate, expressed either by fresh weight or by volume, decreases with age, but this evolution is much less pronounced in human than in animal lenses and in the former never stops completely. This protein synthesis appears to be reduction in a very important pathogenic factor in senile cataract. This opinion is strengthened by the fact that ATP, which hardly decreases with age in human lenses, diminishes only in the last stages of senile cataract, whereas the deficiency in protein synthesis is an early phenomenon, and precedes the first opacities. Incorporation of amino acids into soluble lens protein in vitro can be stimulated by adding to the culture medium, 5 m M dibutyryl c AMP protected by 0,5 m M isobutylmethylxanthine. Topical application to the eye of a few drops confirmed penetration of the c AMP into the lens. The theoretical possibility, always denied, of a preventive or stabilizing medicinal treatment for senile cataract, does, therefore, exist.