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1 From the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb; and 2 Department of Ophthalmology, Columbia University, New York, New York.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. The lenses of lower primates and humans were sectioned anterior to posterior every 0.25 mm, and the UV-visible spectrum of each section was measured to determine the cumulative spectra along the visual axis. The ratio of the absorbance at 320 nm (formed with aging) to the absorbance at 365 nm (present in the young lens) was correlated with the age of the lens.
RESULTS. In the young primate UV-B is transmitted to the retina, and UV-A is transmitted to the nucleus of the lens. By puberty, changes in the absorption characteristics of the lens that are associated with the yellowing of lens protein prevented most of the UV-B from reaching the retina and by the eighth decade, the transmittances at 320 and 365 nm to the nucleus of the lens were approximately 40% and 79%, respectively. A linear relationship between the ratio of absorbance at 320 to 365 nm and age was found for both lower primates and humans to the age of 80 years. This is surprising, because the maximum life span of the lower primate is approximately 35 years, whereas humans may live 100 years.
CONCLUSIONS. These data suggest that the observed spectral changes associated with the yellowing of the lens are the result of a chronological process, such as chemical or photochemical modifications, not biological aging.
| Introduction |
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max = 365 nm),5
which is a
relatively inefficient photosensitizer. Absorption of light by 3-HKG
prevents UV radiation from reaching the retina, and 3-HKG is relatively
benign in the human lens.5
With aging, the amount of 3-HKG in the human lens decreases as
demonstrated by Bando et al.6
and more recently by
Stutchbury and Truscott.7
At the same time, the filtering
capacity of the human lens actually increases due to a generalized
yellowing of lens proteins.5
8
9
Additionally, there is
the formation of protein-attached fluorescent material10
with both blue (
em = approximately 440 nm) and
green (
em = ~520 nm) emissions, the creation
of higher and lower molecular weight polypeptides,11
and
an increase in the negative charge of the crystallins.12
Numerous chemical and photochemical processes may account for these
changes, such as the photochemical modification of
tryptophan,13
the oxidation of lipids,14
and
the chemical attachment of sugars or ascorbic acid through the Maillard
reaction.15
16
Yu et al.17
scanned human
lenses (cortical to nucleus) and found a decrease in fluorescence
caused by 3-HKG with the formation of a new green fluorescent species
in the nucleus. They suggested that there is an age-related conversion
of 3-HKG to the new fluorophore. We have corroborated these
findings18
by sectioning lenses and assessing the
relative absorptions due to 3-HKG and yellow protein. We found that
with age and section of the lens (cortex to nucleus) there is a
decrease of 3-HKG relative to yellow lens protein. These initial
experiments suggested the possibility that an age-related modification
in the human lens is the covalent attachment of 3-HKG to lens protein.
Other studies concerning the irradiation of
-crystallin in the
presence of 3-HKG have also suggested this possibility.19
The present studies were designed to determine more quantitative information about the changes in lens absorption as a function of age. Lower primate and human lenses of various ages were sectioned from anterior to posterior, and the UV-visible spectrum of each section was measured. The cumulative absorption spectra were calculated from the individual spectra to determine the total absorbance of the lens as a function of depth. With increasing age, the absorption from 3-HKG at 365 nm decreases, and the maximum shifts to 320 nm. A linear relationship is observed between the ratio of absorbance at 320 to 365 nm and the age of the lens.
| Methods |
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Primate Lenses
The Manhattan Eye Bank and Beryl Ortwerth (University of
Missouri), supplied human lenses. Two-year-old Rhesus monkey lenses
were obtained from the US Food and Drug Administrations vaccine
testing program. Macaque lenses of other ages were obtained from the
Regional Primate Research Center at the University of Washington. Other
than the tissue from the Manhattan Eye Bank, all lenses were received
frozen and kept at -70°C until used. All of the older human lenses
that were studied were yellow but noncataractous. The lenses were
prepared by one of the following two methods.
Sectioning of Lenses.
A small amount of optimal cutting temperature compound (Tissue-Tek; Ted
Pella, Irvine, CA) was transferred to a spherical plastic dish
(diameter of ~12 mm and depth of ~7 mm) and placed in a microtome
(Lipshaw Manufacturing, Detroit, MI) at -100°C for 15
minutes until the stabilizer was half frozen. The decapsulated lens was
then placed on the compound with the anterior side up. The lens was
then surrounded by the compound from the bottom to the lens equator and
placed in the microtome until the sample was stabilized at -100°C
(approximately 30 minutes). A temperature of -100°C provided the
optimum conditions to obtain clear and intact segments.
The mounted lens was placed in the microtome, and the cutter was positioned at 30° to vertical. All of the lenses were sectioned into 0.25-mm sections except for older (> 70 years), more rigid lenses, which were sectioned into 0.5-mm slabs. The resultant slabs were placed in a quartz cuvette with 0.25- or 0.5-mm path length, allowed to thaw, and covered.
Concentric Analysis of Lenses.
Concentric analysis of lens protein and 3-HKG was achieved by the
method of Li et al.20
The lens was placed in a preweighed
test tube with 0.5 ml distilled H2O and vortexed.
The remaining intact part of the lens was removed. This allowed for the
separation of approximately the outer 20% of the lens. Ethyl alcohol
(2.5 ml; 100%) was added to the test tube, vortexed, and centrifuged
(12,000 rpm, 15 minutes). The supernatant was then analyzed spectrally
(UV-visible) for its optical density (OD), at 365 nm. The precipitate
was dried and placed in 1.25 M Tris-1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (pH 6.8)
buffer, and the absorption at 320 nm was determined at the same
dilution as for the supernatant.
Whole Lenses.
Whole lenses were bathed in balanced salt solution at room temperature
before all measurements. To record the absorption spectra, each lens
was placed in a demountable cell and slightly flattened to minimize
focusing.
Spectral Measurements
Spectrophotometer.
Spectral transmission of the samples was measured using a fiberoptic
spectrometer (PC 1000; Ocean Optics, Dunedin, FL). The system uses the
continuous output of a deuterium lamp (approximately 200700 nm) as
the excitation source and a high-sensitivity charge-coupled device
(CCD) detector mounted on a card in a computer (IBM Pentium 133; IBM,
Armonk, NY). The unique feature of this spectrophotometer is its use of
fiberoptic cables, with apertures varying from 0.05 to 4 mm, as light
guides. The excitation light is led into the sample chamber through a
fiberoptic bundle, and the transmitted light is then collected by a
second fiberoptic bundle positioned at a 180o
angle to the excitation source. The excitation and transmitted light
are collimated by a set of focusing lenses on either side of the sample
chamber. The CCD array detector is capable of collecting
full-wavelength spectra (2001000 nm) with good signal-to-noise ratios
at integration times as rapid as 1 msec. Thus, once the dark (0%
transmittance [T]) and reference (100% T) spectra have been
collected and stored, the actual transmission or absorption spectra can
be obtained every few milliseconds.
The rapid data collection rate and the small aperture of the fiberoptics allow the transmittances of different spatial regions of the same tissue. In addition, the flexibility of the spectrophotometer is such that spectra can be acquired with the cuvette in the horizontal position. Most of the spectra from the tissue samples presented here were obtained in this orientation. An additional important advantage of this apparatus is that the experiment is performed in the open. Therefore, the exact position of the beam impinging on the sample is determined visually.
Data Analysis.
Studies on guanidine HCl solutions of old human lens
protein5
have shown that the proteins do not absorb at
wavelengths longer than 550 nm. When working on intact sections it is
likely that the spectra will exhibit apparent absorption at longer
wavelengths caused by light scattering. This is the result of both
Rayleigh and Tyndall scattering and can be subtracted from the observed
absorption spectrum by first fitting the scattering portion of the
spectrum (e.g., 600700 nm) to the formula A =
a
n where A is
the absorbance, a is a constant,
is the wavelength,
and n is the order of the relationship between
absorbance and wavelength.21
The background absorbance due
to scattering for all other wavelengths is then estimated using the
coefficients determined from the fit. These values are then subtracted
out of the spectrum to give the true absorption spectrum. All
calculations were performed with commercial software (Origin 5.0;
Microcal, Northampton, MA).
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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max = 365 nm), which filters out most UV
radiation before it reaches the retina. This chromophore may function
to protect the retina, which is an order of magnitude more sensitive to
damage by UV light than visible radiation.22
The function,
if any, of the small window of transmission at approximately 320 nm in
the young primate lens is not known. This window closes by puberty as
the lens ages and the lens proteins yellow. We have previously reported that some UV-B and, more significantly, UV-A from ambient radiation are incident on the human lens.18 Inspection of the cumulative absorption spectra of the young primate lens (Fig. 2) indicates that both UV-B and UV-A penetrate to the nucleus in the young lens and are absorbed fairly efficiently. The effect of this absorption in the young lens may result in initial damage to the nucleus, rendering it more susceptible to cataract formation later in life. Several recently reported epidemiologic studies concerning nutrition and nuclear cataract formation have been reviewed by Beebe.23 One of these studies found that infant weight at 1 year is negatively correlated with nuclear opacity later in life. Although it is not possible to unambiguously exclude other factors, this study suggested that poor dietary circumstances such as a deficiency of antioxidants may be a causative factor. If this is the case, then reduced amounts of antioxidants available to the infant eye could cause UV injury to be more severe. An analogous observation has been observed for dermal melanoma24 in which exposure to excessive amounts of UV-B early in life predispose to melanoma later in life.
The presence of 3-HKG in the primate lens is unique and does not appear in the lenses of any other species studies so far except for a homologue in the diurnal squirrel lens25 and in some shallow-swimming marine vertebrates.26 The synthesis27 28 and the mechanism of the age-related loss19 29 30 of 3-HKG is an active area of study. However, the location of synthesis and any age-related changes in the metabolism of 3-HKG are still not known. Attempts to detect 3-HKG in isolated epithelial cells were not successful, suggesting that it is most likely synthesized in the outer cortex, probably in the equatorial region.28 The presence of it in the first section of the 46-year-old lens (Fig. 5) supports this. The metabolism of 3-HKG apparently decreases with age, because it was not detected in old (~60 years) lenses.
As the human lens ages, there is a progressive loss of
3-HKG6
7
and a concomitant yellowing of lens
proteins5
resulting in a broad absorption maximum near 320
to 330 nm, as well as absorbance extending out to 550 nm. In Figure 5
these changes are apparent within a single lens from cortex (younger)
to nucleus (older). In the younger part of the lens, absorption
attributable to 3-HKG is present but disappears from the spectra
collected in the older regions. Modified lens protein, which imparts
the yellow color to the lens, appears to be uniformly distributed.
Attempts were made to quantify this aging process by correlating the
ratio of OD320/OD365 nm
from the cumulative spectrum at 1 mm depth, representing an older
portion of the lens, with age. The OD320, which
increases with age, and the OD365, which is
attributable to absorption by 3-HKG and decreases with age, may be
considered to be a qualitative estimate of UV-B and UV-A, respectively,
that penetrates the lens. There is a good linear relationship between
these parameters, indicating that the loss of 3-HKG
(
max = 365 nm) and the increase in absorption
at 320 nm are proportional to each other and that both are related to
the total number of years that the animal has lived.
This correlation is particularly interesting, because the data in Figure 7 include values from both lower primates and humans. The linear relationship indicates that similar aging processes occur in both species. However, the life expectancies of the two species are very different; monkeys live to a maximum of 35 years whereas humans may live to a maximum of 100 years. Therefore, the observed spectral changes associated with the yellowing of the lens are the result of a chronological process related to the number of years lived and not to percentage of lifetime. The most obvious explanation for this phenomenon is that the yellowing of lens proteins is the result of photochemical reactions or other environmentally induced chemical reactions rather than normal aging. (i.e., failure of systems, enzymes, and repair).
Additionally, if the data in Figure 7 are fit separately, it is observed that the rate of change of OD320/OD365 versus years for the lower primates is slightly slower than the comparable line for humans. This again argues in support of a photochemical mechanism for the yellowing of the lens, because the monkeys were raised indoors and had received a lower total light dose than a human. Clarification of this hypothesis will be further studied by careful examination of the spectral changes for individual sections from the anterior to the posterior of human lenses to determine whether the changes are uniform with depth. If the changes are caused by a photochemical mechanism, then it is anticipated that the rate of change will be somewhat accelerated in the anterior portion of the lens.
| Footnotes |
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Submitted for publication August 30, 1999; revised December 17, 1999; accepted December 30, 1999.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
Corresponding author: Elizabeth R. Gaillard, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Michael Faraday Laboratories, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115-2862. gaillard{at}niu.edu
| References |
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-crystallin: a model for lenticular aging Photochem Photobiol 69,248-253[Medline][Order article via Infotrieve]
-crystallin: a model for lenticular aging Photochem Photobiol 69,248-253
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