The response of the lens to trauma.

The results of a number of investigations into traumatic cataract and after-cataract are presented. The traumatic cataract has been studied both in human lenses and experimentally. Light and electron microscopy, quantitative microradiography and an extracellular tracer--procion dye, were used to follow the cellular changes during cataract progression. The influence of wound size and wound healing as well as the lens fibre response to trauma were followed. Furthermore, tissue culture was used to study the proliferation of lens epithelial cells on the lens capsule. The after-cataract formed in tissue culture as well as experimental traumatic cataracts in rats and rabbits were compared to different stages of human traumatic cataract. Traumatic cataract has a subcapsular distribution and the importance of an intact functioning epithelium for lens transparency is emphasized.