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RECENT OBSERVATIONS ON CATARACT ASSOCIATED WITH TRYPTOPHAN DEFICIENCY AND WITH SOME OTHER EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS

WILHELM BUSCHKE, M.D.

Arch Ophthal. 1943;30(6):735-750.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Since the early observations by Erdheim,¹ in 1906, on cataract associated with tetany in rats and those by A. Buschke,² in 1913, on cataract produced by thallium, cataract has been observed with seven other experimental conditions of the rat. Such cataracts do not include the acute reversible opacities of the lens due to osmotic and physical factors. The question arises whether this fairly large body of experimental observations can be put to any use in solution of the problem of the pathogenesis of cataract. The occurrence of cataract in one species under a great number of different conditions appears to be a fortunate situation from the standpoint of comparative pathology.

Valuable information can be obtained by systematic studies with the slit lamp during the early stages and throughout the development of the cataract and by observation on allied manifestations elsewhere in the body. On the basis of such . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
BALTIMORE

From the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Footnotes
This work was supported in part by grants for the study of amino acids in nutrition made by the Rockefeller Foundation, Merck & Company, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, and E. R. Squibb & Sons to the Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The work on riboflavin deficiency and on galactose and xylose cataracts, briefly referred to in this paper, is being carried on under grants from the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation.

The observations on tryptophan-deficient rats reported in this paper are part of a general study on the clinical and chemical changes occurring in amino acid deficiencies in experimental animals and in human beings. This study was conducted in the department of pediatrics of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and University and was under the immediate direction of Dr. L. Emmett Holt Jr. The participation of the department of ophthalmology in the study was incidental and was made at the specific invitation of Dr. Holt. Full reports of the study as a whole will be made by Dr. Holt and his co-workers in other journals. The observations reported here are, however, of special ophthalmologic interest and on this account appear to warrant a separate report in the ophthalmologic literature.

The cataracts in rats with experimental diabetes occurred in the course of studies conducted by Dr. Curt P. Richter in the psychobiologic laboratory of the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, who also observed the cataracts. Dr. Richter permitted me to study these eyes. Reference to these studies is made by permission of Dr. Richter.

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