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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1987 Jan;84(1):122–125. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.1.122

Phase separation in lens cytoplasm is genetically linked to cataract formation in the Philly mouse.

J I Clark, D Carper
PMCID: PMC304154  PMID: 3467344

Abstract

The variation of the phase-separation temperature, Tc, in lenses was studied during the postnatal development of three genetically different mouse strains: Swiss-Webster, Philly, and the (Swiss-Webster x Philly)F1 hybrid. The general behavior of Tc during early postnatal development has two stages: in stage I, Tc increased to a maximum and then, in stage II, Tc decreased. Philly mice are a strain that develops hereditary cataracts about 36 days following birth. In F1 hybrids of Philly and Swiss-Webster mice, cataracts appeared about 49 days following birth, approximately equal to 13 days later in development than in the Philly mice. In the Philly and hybrid mice, stage I and stage II were followed by stage III in which Tc reached a minimum value and then increased toward body temperature. The values of Tc at birth, the slope of the increase during stage I, and the maximum Tc were characteristic for each mouse strain. These results establish that the behavior of the temperature of the phase separation Tc in mouse lens is linked to the genetic strain of the mice and that the value of Tc at birth is an early indicator of lenses that will develop cataracts and lenses that will develop normally.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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