Messenger RNA population in normal and cataractous rat lens. A minireview.

Previous work from this laboratory has suggested that swollen nucleated fiber cells can survive in mature galactose-cataracts. Evidence for this observation was derived from analysis on the in vitro translation products of mRNA isolated from normal lens and lens undergoing development of galactose-cataracts. Additional studies on the abundance of a fiber cell specific gene product (MP26 mRNA) in both normal and cataractous lens mapped out gene response to: (1) differentiation of epithelial cells to fiber cells, (2) levels of this differential gene activity and its anatomical location in initiation and maturation of galactose-cataracts, and (3) distribution of MP26 mRNA in fibers of normal and cataractous lens. The results from these studies demonstrated that mRNA subsistence in lens undergoing osmotic cataract development might be an indication of occurrence of mechanisms responsible for the reversibility of that type of cataracts. Presumably, reversibility requires propagation and maintenance of the total population of lens specific mRNAs, as our data suggests.