Abstract
ALTHOUGH the cataractogenic influence of galactose has long been appreciated1,2,3, the mechanism whereby galactose exerts its effect on the ocular lens has not been clarified. It was recently shown that galactose-1-phosphate acts as, or gives rise to, an inhibitor of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in the rat lens, both in vitro and in vivo 4. In order to investigate further the hexose monophosphate shunt in such lenses, six Holtzman strain white male rats, 27 days old and weighing approximately 55 gm. each, were placed on a high galactose diet5 while six similar animals were fed a control glucose diet5. One animal from each group was killed after 1½ days on its respective diet; their lenses were immediately removed, weighed, and placed in an incubation apparatus similar to the one employed by Kinoshita and Wachtl6. Each incubation tube contained 5 ml. Krebs Ringer bicarbonate buffer which had been gassed for 1 hr. with 5 per cent carbon dioxide, 95 per cent oxygen, in order to stabilize the pH at 7.5.
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References
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Lerman, S., Amer. Med. Assoc. Arch. Ophth. (in the press).
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Kinoshita, J. H., and Wachtl, C., J. Biol. Chem., 233, 5 (1958).
Dische, Z., Zelmenis, G., and Youlos, J., Amer. J. Ophth., 44, 332 (1957).
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LERMAN, S. Carbohydrate Metabolism in the Experimental Galactose Cataract. Nature 184, 1406–1407 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1841406a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1841406a0
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