What Researchers Did
Researchers investigated the levels of specific lysine oxidation products in human lens crystallins to understand their role in aging and diabetes-related nuclear sclerosis.
What They Found
They found that both adipic semialdehyde (ALL) and 2-aminoadipic acid (2-AAA) increased with age and correlated with cataract grade, while only ALL formation was elevated in diabetes. In rabbit lenses exposed to hyperbaric oxygen, protein-bound ALL increased 8-fold in nuclear protein fractions, and 2-AAA formed only upon glutathione depletion and H2O2 catalysis.
Canadian Relevance
This study does not have a direct Canadian connection.
Study Limitations
A limitation is the use of rabbit lenses for mechanistic studies, which may not fully translate to human physiology.