Phosphorylcholine and phosphorylethanolamine in human and rhesus monkey lenses.

Phosphorylcholine (P-choline) and phosphorylethanolamine (P-ethanolamine) are important precursors of phospholipids. The metabolism and concentration of P-choline has been shown to change in animal models of cataract, especially in oxidatively or osmotically stressed rat lenses. The concentrations of P-choline and P-ethanolamine were determined in monkey lenses and in normal and cataractous human lenses, and the rate of synthesis of P-choline was determined in human and monkey lenses. The concentration of P-choline in 53 clear human lenses was 0.94 mM (+/- 0.31 S.D.) and was relatively unaffected by age, eye bank storage, or freezing. There was a 70% decrease in P-choline in brown cataracts but no significant change from normal in non-brown cataracts. The concentration of P-ethanolamine in human lenses was 0.45 mM (+/- 0.26 S.D.), and it appeared to decrease during frozen storage of lenses and in cataracts. The concentrations of P-choline and P-ethanolamine in 12 rhesus monkey lenses were 1.51 mM (+/- 0.27 S.D.) and 0.75 mM (+/- 0.14 S.D.), respectively. The rate of synthesis of P-choline in monkey lenses incubated with [3H]choline was 8 nmol hr-1 g-1 wet weight in 1 mM choline. Adult human lenses incubated in 1 mM choline synthesized P-choline at a rate of 23 nmol hr-1 g-1 (+/- 6 S.D.). This limited capacity for P-choline synthesis in primate lenses may contribute to the lower P-choline concentration relative to rat lenses, which contain 11 mM P-choline and can synthesize P-choline at an apparent maximum rate of 130 nmol hr-1 g-1.