Metabolism of the Normal and Cataractous Lens

Abstract

Since there is in the body no structure analogous to the lens its metabolism cannot be expressed in terms of any organ, but comparisons are self-limited. Metabolic activities are greatest near the surface of the lens and decrease gradually toward its center. The glycolysis of approximately 2.4 mg. and the consumption of 0.3 mg. of oxygen is performed by the normal lens per day, representing 1 percent and 0.25 percent of the total energy exchange of the eye. The metabolism of the cataractous lens is very incompletely known, for the specific toxicity of the experimental agent is not definitively known. Read before the Association for Research in Ophthalmology in Milwaukee, June 13, 1933. From the Eye Clinic of the University of Chicago, E. V. L. Brown, Director. Since there is in the body no structure analogous to the lens its metabolism cannot be expressed in terms of any organ, but comparisons are self-limited. Metabolic activities are greatest near the surface of the lens and decrease gradually toward its center. The glycolysis of approximately 2.4 mg. and the consumption of 0.3 mg. of oxygen is performed by the normal lens per day, representing 1 percent and 0.25 percent of the total energy exchange of the eye. The metabolism of the cataractous lens is very incompletely known, for the specific toxicity of the experimental agent is not definitively known. Read before the Association for Research in Ophthalmology in Milwaukee, June 13, 1933. From the Eye Clinic of the University of Chicago, E. V. L. Brown, Director.