ISSN: 2155-9570
Roger J.W. Truscott
Save Sight Institute, Sydney University,
8 Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW, 2001
Australia
Research Article
Human Age-Related Cataract: A Condition with No Appropriate Animal Model
Author(s): Roger TruscottRoger Truscott
A case is made in this article that research on animal models of human age-related cataract has contributed little to our understanding of this blinding disease. This surprising conclusion comes about not so much for the reason that humans are different from other animals, although important aspects of human lens biochemistry are not matched by experimental animals, but more so because of the very long periods of time that are required before human cataract become evident.
Insidious processes associated with aging are required to establish the conditions necessary for human cataract, and laboratory animals simply do not live long enough to act as useful models. In relation to human nuclear cataract, the large sums of money spent on animal models would have been spent more productively on investigating the processes that underpin human lens aging. Lessons derived from human cata.. View More»