Alteration of lens disulfide bonds in newly developed hereditary cataract rat.

A newly developed hereditary cataract rat named Shumiya Cataract Rat (SCR) is introduced. The lens opacity manifests spontaneously in the nuclear and perinuclear portions of the lens in this model at 11 weeks of age. Raman optical dissection studies reveal that lens protein disulfide bonds are considerably decreased in the SCR opaque lens nucleus. This tendency is also detected in the precataractous stage. The simultaneous increase of lens protein sulfhydryl groups is observed in the affected lens nucleus. The glutathione disulfide (oxidized glutathione) level, on the contrary, is elevated in the SCR opaque lens, whereas the glutathione sulfhydryl (reduced glutathione) level is decreased. It is suggested that the impaired formation of protein disulfide bonds is related to lens opacification in a hereditary manner.