Emory mouse cataracts, pre-cataractous lenses and cataract-resistant controls (CFW mice) will be studied to detemine the involvement of endogenous proteases and calcium in cataractogenesis. A parallel study will be made on selected human cataracts and eyebank lenses showing initial cataractous changes. An autoradiographic study of 35S-methionine incorporation into mouse cataracts of varying degrees of severity will show which crystallins and polypeptides are involved in the failure of cataracts to grow at the same rate as normal lenses of the same age; SDS-PAGE, isoelectric focusing, and chromatofocusing will be applied to the solution of this problem. The Emory mouse develops a late-onset type of cataract which bears morphological and histological resemblence to human senile cataract. The capacity to study such lenses at a pre-cataractous stage makes the Emory mouse a valuable animal model for the most common cause of blindness in older people, senile cataract, which cannot be investigated experimentally in human patients by ethicalmethods. One phase of the research on this animal model will be to determine the mechanism by which dietary penicillamine retards the appearance of cataractous changes as compared to lenses in control cataractous mice not given penicillamine. The colony of Emory mice is now a source of breeding stock for cataract research investigators who would like to maintain their own colonies. The collaborative effort with Dr. N.-T. Yu of Georgia Tech will emphasize the application of the Raman spectrometer to in vivo measurements of Raman and fluorescent spectra and elastic light scattering. Such work is now feasible with the use of a multiple-channel intensified silicon photodiode array (Reticon) detector coupled with a microprocessor-based optical multichannel analyzer (OMA).
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