Two transgenic mouse strains have recently been obtained. These strains contain the HIV protease coding sequence linked to the alphaA-crystallin promoter. One strain gets cataract in utero, while the other strain develo cataract at approximately 25 days. The strains are currently hemizygous. Efforts in the past several months have been directed to getting homozygous populations of these strains to determine the cause of the cataract formation and how this is related to the expression of the HIV protease in the lens.
