A morphological description of human cataractous lenses by SEM.

Human cataractous lenses from patients of advanced age (101 & 85 year) were investigated by SEM. Various aspects of the cataract morphology could be observed. Even when the overall shape of the lens fibres had remained unchanged (although the typical ball and socket interconnections were barely visible) the homogeneous fibre content had changed into fibrillar and/or granular material, or the lens fibres had been (partly) hollowed out. Where there was shrinkage of the originally hexagonally-shaped lens fibres to a more or less rounded form with a wrinkled surface, the contents had changed into granular material with low density. Both granular and fibrillar material could account for a substantial increase in light scattering, resulting in a considerable decrease in vision through the lens.