Evaluation of antioxidants and argpyrimidine in normal and cataractous lenses in north Indian population.

Aim: To assess the level of glutathione, thioltransferase, and argpyrimidine in nuclear and cortical cataractous lenses as well as in the clear lenses in the north Indian population.

Methods: Human cataractous lenses were collected from the patients who underwent extracapsular cataract extraction surgery; clear lenses were collected from the freshly donated eye bank eyes. Antioxidant molecules such as glutathione and thioltransferase enzyme activity were measured; simultaneously in these lenses a blue fluorophore argpyrimidine, an advanced glycation end (AGE) product level was assessed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Results: The protein concentration was found to be present at higher levels in the control lenses compared to cataract lenses. A significant decrease in the glutathione level was observed in the nuclear cataractous lenses compared to cortical cataractous (=0.004) and clear lenses (≤0.005), but no significant change in the level of antioxidant enzyme thioltransferase was observed. Further, argpyrimidine a blue fluorophore (AGE) was found to be significantly higher in the nuclear cataract (=0.013) compared to cortical cataract lenses.

Conclusion: Antioxidants such as glutathione significantly decrease in age-related nuclear and cortical cataract and an AGE, argpyrimidine are present at significantly higher levels in nuclear cataract.