Reactive Dicarbonyls in Human Cataractous Nuclei

Abstract

Non-enzymic glycation of long-lived proteins has been implicated in several age related and diabetes related complications, including cataract. Dicarbonyl compounds such as methylglyoxal and glyoxal have been identified as the predominant source for the formation of advanced glycation end products in various tissues including the lens. Objective: Comparative assessment of the colour of nuclei and quantity of reactive Dicarbonyls present in removed senile cataractous lens nuclei in diabetic and non-diabetic senile cataract cases undergoing routine cataract surgery. Methods: 30 cases were recruited in this study. The preoperative assessment of types and grading of cataract were done after the cases admitted. All the cases were operated by one surgeon (SS) at Great River Eye Hospital Benghazi. The nucleus of the cataractous lens (core part of the human lens) from operated cases first examined for colour and then transferred in dry state to the laboratory for biochemical assay of reactive dicarbonyls. Results: Average concentration of detected reactive dicarbonyls in non diabetics was 2.5148x10 ± 1.2 w/w in comparison to 4.566x10 ± 1.5 w/w in diabetics (p<0.005) in our study. The average concentration of detected dicarbonyls in nondiabetic females is 2.55X10 ±1.2w/w.in comparison to2.45X10 ±1.2w/w in males, while the detected concentrations in diabetic females are 4.58X10 ±1.4 in comparison to 4.46X10 ±1.9w/w in males. Conclusion: We observed more browning of the removed cataract nuclei in cases that had diabetes in comparison to cases without diabetes. There has been significant high level of reactive dicarbonyls detected in removed nuclei from diabetic individuals than from non-diabetics.