Evaluation of antioxidants and argpyrimidine in normal and cataractous lenses in north Indian population.

AIM

To assess the level of glutathione, thioltransferase, and argpyrimidine in nuclear and cortical cataractous lenses as well as in the clear lenses in the north Indian population.

METHODS

Human cataractous lenses were collected from the patients who underwent extracapsular cataract extraction surgery; clear lenses were collected from the freshly donated eye bank eyes. Antioxidant molecules such as glutathione and thioltransferase enzyme activity were measured; simultaneously in these lenses a blue fluorophore argpyrimidine, an advanced glycation end (AGE) product level was assessed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

RESULTS

The protein concentration was found to be present at higher levels in the control lenses compared to cataract lenses. A significant decrease in the glutathione level was observed in the nuclear cataractous lenses compared to cortical cataractous (=0.004) and clear lenses (≤0.005), but no significant change in the level of antioxidant enzyme thioltransferase was observed. Further, argpyrimidine a blue fluorophore (AGE) was found to be significantly higher in the nuclear cataract (=0.013) compared to cortical cataract lenses.

CONCLUSION

Antioxidants such as glutathione significantly decrease in age-related nuclear and cortical cataract and an AGE, argpyrimidine are present at significantly higher levels in nuclear cataract.