13C-nuclear magnetic resonance studies of sugar cataractogenesis in the single intact rabbit lens.

In this report we demonstrate that 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy may be used to monitor the sorbitol and glycolytic pathways in a single, intact, crystalline lens of the rabbit, thereby providing a new, noninvasive method for the study of sugar cataractogenesis. This approach is particularly useful for the measurement of intralenticular metabolic fluxes in single lenses under various conditions, at a time resolution previously unavailable in lens biochemistry.