Studies on the possible role of vitreous humor on the protein synthesis and clarity of the organ cultured ocular lens.

Contralateral lenses were organ cultured with or without attached vitreous humor (VH) for up to two days. The lenses without attached VH showed significantly higher rate of protein synthesis. This increase was not only due to the trauma of vitreous stripping, since lenses without attached VH, but co-cultured with VH, showed protein synthetic activity similar to that of lenses with attached VH. The removal of VH from lenses does not significantly alter Na+/K+ balance of the lenses, although these lenses showed slight equatorial opacities. It was also found that freeze dried VH can inhibit lens protein synthesis, indicating VH contains some water soluble molecule with protein synthesis inhibitory activity.