TRYPTOPHAN DETERMINATION IN CATARACTS DUE TO DEFICIENCY OR DELAYED SUPPLEMENTATION OF TRYPTOPHAN

Abstract

IN SEVERAL recent papers it has clearly been shown that in dietary deficiencies not connected with ingestion of toxic substances, such as dinitrophenol, naphthalene, thallium and ergot, or with consumption of galactose, lactose or xylose, or with vitamin deficiencies, corneal vascularization, and often cataract formation as well, can be induced in experimental animals by inadequate diets in which the missing component is protein or one of its building stones, an essential amino acid. With protein deprivation (Hall and associates¹) and with deficiencies of lysine and tryptophane (Totter and Day,²) of methionine (Berg and associates³), of phenylalanine, leucine and histidine (Maun, Cahill and Davis⁴) and of phenylalanine, isoleucine, threonine, valine and arginine (Sydenstricker, Hall, Bowles and co-workers⁵), corneal vascularization was commonly observed. Cataract formation was less common. One of the earliest reports of cataract formation associated with dietary inadequacies in which protein or its components were