Uptake of75Se in cataractous rat lens proteins

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Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to measure the pattern of uptake of75Se into proteins in normal rat lenses and into the proteins of lenses with selenite-induced cataract. Ten-day-old suckling rats received a single injection of75Se with or without a cataractous dose of cold carrier sodium selenite. Four days after injection, the proteins from excised lenses were counted for75Se radioactivity and subjected to gel permeation chromatography, amino acid analyses, and mass spectrometry. All three soluble crystallin lens proteins took up75Se in both normal and cataractous lenses. However, cataractous lenses did not take up75Se into a soluble protein in which major quantities of75Se were taken up in normal rats. Futhermore,75Se in the gamma-crystallins was associated with an unusual acidic amino acid. It was concluded that selenium metabolism by lens proteins may be unusual compared to other soft tissues.