Abstract
THE biochemical basis for the phenomenon termed ‘cold cataract’ (that is, opacification of lenses due to cooling) has been elucidated. A soluble protein which comprises approximately 10 per cent of the total soluble lens protein and which precipitates both in lenses and in aqueous extracts of lenses when they are cooled below 10° C has been isolated. This finding validates the suggestion made by van Heyningen1 that a protein is responsible for clouding of mammalian lenses in the cold. It has been further observed that cold precipitation is a reversible process, since warming the lenses or extracts results in complete restoration of their transparency.
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References
van Heyningen, R., in The Eye, edit. by Davson. H., 1 (Academic Press, N. Y., 1962).
Sheraga, H. A., Nemethy, G., and Steinberg, I. Z., J. Biol. Chem., 237, 2706 (1962).
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ZIGMAN, S., LERMAN, S. A Cold Precipitable Protein in the Lens. Nature 203, 662–663 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/203662a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/203662a0
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