Identification of spontaneous age-related cataract in .

OBJECTIVES

Age-related cataract is the most common type of adult cataract and a leading cause of blindness. Currently, there are few reports on the establishment of animal models for age-related cataract. During the experimental breeding of (), we first observed that aged 12 to 15 months could naturally develop cataracts. This study aims to explore the possibility of developing them as an animal model for age-related cataract via identifing and analyzing spontaneous cataract in .

METHODS

The 12-month-old healthy were served as a control group and 12-month-old cataractous were served as an experimental group. The lens transparency was observed using the slit-lamp biomicroscope. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to detect pathological changes in the lens. Biochemical detection methods were applied to detect blood routine, blood glucose levels, the serum activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in both groups. Finally, real-time RT-PCR was used to detect the transcription levels of cataract-related genes in the lens of 2 groups.

RESULTS

Compared with the control group, the lens of cataract showed severely visible opacity, the structure of lens was destroyed seriously, and some pathological damage, such as swelling, degeneration/necrosis, calcification, hyperplasia, and fiber liquefaction were found in lens epithelial cells (LECs). The fibrous structure was disorganized and irregularly distributed with morgagnian globules (MGs) aggregated in the degenerated lens fibers. There was no statistically significant difference in blood glucose levels between the experimental and control groups (0.05). However, white blood cell (WBC) count (0.05), lymphocyte count (0.01), and lymphocyte ratio (0.05) were significantly decreased, while neutrophil percentage (0.05) and monocyte ratio (0.01) were significantly increased. The serum activities of SOD and GSH-Px (both 0.05) were both reduced. The mRNAs of cataract-related genes, including , , , , , , , and , were significantly downregultaed in the lenses of the experimental group (all 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

There are significant differences in lens pathological changes, peroxidase levels, and cataract-related gene expression between cataract and healthy . The developed cataract spontaneously in is closely related to age, the cataract might be an ideal animal model for the research of age-related cataract.