Research progress on racemization of crystallins and pathogenesis of cataract / 中华实验眼科杂志

ABSTRACT

Racemization is probably the most abundant post-translational modification (PTM) in aged lens.According to previous studies,L-amino acid in α,β and γ crystallins are tend to transfer into D-amino acid with aging,leading to a series of age-related changes in the structure,metabolism and function of lens.Aggregated highmolecular-weight proteins gradually accumulate in both nuclear and cortex region,which will have a negative effect on the function of crystallins and finally lead to capacity of lens.Moreover,it is likely that racemization of crystallins eventually leads to cataract formation and development as well.The material effect and mechanism of racemization changes in human age-related lens still requires further research.