The Cause of Cataracts P.2



CONTENTS of this PAGE

      

Results

 

 

(1) Preparatory knowledge for people and about a method of our study

 

A. Wedge-shaped (Cuneiform) cataracts

 

B. Nuclear cataracts

 

C. Subcapsular cataracts

 

Results

 

 

(1) Preparatory knowledge for people and about a method of our study

 

 To people, cataracts are a single disease by which an eye becomes opaque. Subsequently the eye loses its visual acuity. However, there are many sorts of cataracts. They are congenital cataracts, age-related cataracts, diabetic cataracts, traumatic cataracts and etc.

 Among them, age-related cataracts are very important, because they affect so many people. The next three are the main types of age-related cataracts.


A. Wedge-shaped (Cuneiform) cataracts (Fig.1-1)

Wedge-shaped opacity begins near the equator of the lens cortex, and it progresses to the center of the lens. The word gopacityh means gopaquenessh or gan opaque areah in ophthalmology1. This is a common type of age-related cataract.

 In the course of wedge-shaped cataract progression, other opaqueness, a large number of very fine opaque lines and speckled or dotted opaqueness occur.

 

Fig.1-1 Wedge-shaped cataract by David Paton and John A. Craig2

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B. Nuclear cataracts (Fig.1-2)

In nuclear cataracts, the lens nucleus becomes gradually opaque and brown. In the lens, aged lens fiber cells accumulate toward the center of the lens. These accumulated cells make a lens nucleus. Because of this accumulation, the nucleus gradually increases in opaqueness and hardness. Therefore, everyone develops this cataract. However, only a small number of people lose eyesight due to this cataract.

The cause of the brown color is AGE: Advanced Glycation End Products. John Harding says as follows in his book3.

gIn vitro non-enzymic glycation of proteins caused conformational changes to the proteins exposing the protein cores.h gThe proteins also became yellow and fluorescent and aggregated. The same alterations were seen in glycated protein isolated from human diabetic cataractsand are changes known to occur in human cataract generally.h

The gglycationh is gthe result of typically covalent bonding of a protein or lipid molecule with a sugar molecule.h

This is the only age-related cataract in which the cause was explained clearly.

 

Fig.1-2 Nuclear cataract by Paton and Craig2


C. Subcapsular cataracts (Fig.1-3)

 In subcapsular cataracts, opaque spots appear on the internal surface of the posterior lens capsule. The opaque spots increase gradually, causing loss of eyesight.

 

Fig.1-3 Subcapsular cataract by Paton and Craig2

 

 Wedge-shaped cataracts are the most common and most important type of age-related cataract. Countless researchers have studied cataracts and age-related cataracts. However, the cause of wedge-shaped cataracts remains unknown.
 In cataracts, opaque substances impair a person's visual acuity. The studies on cataracts investigated up to today only discussed how the opaque substances are caused by biochemical changes.
Those reports about biochemical changes in age-related cataracts investigated everything about lens substances in cataracts.
 Harding describes as follows. gNot surprisingly the insoluble protein contains a wide variety of lens polypeptides.
3h There are so many substances relating to cataracts. Among them insoluble proteins and insoluble aggregates are the final opaque products in cataracts. Many products come out from various origins, but none of those miscellaneous origins will be the primary cause of cataracts. Therefore, however researchers investigate those substances, no one will find the cause of cataracts. They only go too far into the affair. Contrary to this, if anyone traces the process of the lens cell crushing, she will reach the cause of wedge-shaped cataracts, and she can explain the progression of wedge-shaped cataracts without any contradictions.
 To write our conclusion first, biochemical changes of substances in wedge-shaped cataracts are not the cause of cataracts, but only the result. The cause of wedge-shaped cataracts is the crushing of the epithelial cells.

 Changes of shape in age-related cataracts have already been investigated exhaustively as with the case of the biochemical changes. I believed that I could trace the origin of wedge-shaped cataracts by digging up literature reported up to now, and that the answer to the cause of wedge-shaped cataracts must be hidden in these researchers` studies.
 This paper is written only by piling up facts and logic. The gfactsh are the preceding literature of our excellent predecessors. The glogich is my thought. I
will dig up important literature from many studies. Then I will make obvious the cause of wedge-shaped cataracts based on that literature.




The Cause of Cataracts P.2