Lens Inhibitor Proteins and Cataractogenesis

描述(申请人提供)：30多年前，最初的 与老年性白内障形成相关的晶状体生化变化包括 描述。然而，在过去十年中，几乎没有关于以下方面的额外数据 由于缺乏对人类白内障的研究，这一过程已经收集起来。一个 老年人晶状体的共同特征是黄色发色团的积累， 它们与蛋白质结合在一起。这些修饰可以吸收UVA光和铅 对体外活性氧物种的形成有影响。这一点很重要，因为 UVA光照射在原位人类晶状体上的量是一千 比UVB大几倍，所有的光都会被镜头吸收。这个 负责这种变黄的发色团将从老年人身上分离出来 晶状体和白内障及其光化学研究。因为看起来很有可能 人类晶状体中几乎没有氧气，这其中很大一部分 光化学将涉及被激活的自由基的反应性 由Ar饱和溶液中的UVA光形成。这些影响可能包括 抗氧化剂的损失，保护晶状体的酶的失活和 蛋白质交联剂。 这项资助虽然只涉及UVA对晶状体组织的影响，但仍然带有 这个名字来自24年前。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): More than 30 years ago, the initial changes in lens biochemistry associated with age-onset cataract formation were described. In the past decade, however, little additional data pertaining to this process has been gathered due to a lack of human cataracts to study. A common property of aged human lens is the accumulation of yellow chromophores, which are bound to proteins. These modifications can absorb UVA light and lead to the formation of reactive oxygen species in vitro. This is important because the amount of UVA light impingement on the human lens in situ is a thousand times greater than UVB, and all of it is absorbed within the lens. The chromophores responsible for this yellowing will be isolated from aged human lenses and cataracts and their photochemistry studied. Since it seems likely that there is little or no oxygen in the human lens, much of this photochemistry will involve the reactivity of the activated free radicals formed by UVA light in argon-saturated solutions. These effects may include loss of antioxidants, inactivation of enzymes which protect the lens and protein crosslinking. This grant, while dealing solely with UVA affects on lens tissue, still carries the name from 24 years ago.