EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON EARLY LENS CHANGES AFTER ROENTGEN IRRADIATION

Abstract

SINCE it was first shown that roentgen ray cataract could be produced experimentally in mature animals (in guinea pigs by Bossuet,¹ in 1909, and in rabbits by Aulamo,² in 1928), the question of the primary site of radiation injury to the lens and the pathogenesis of the lesion have been discussed by many investigators on the basis of experimental and clinical evidence and have been studied systematically by a few. Most investigators have favored the concept of direct radiation damage to the lens (Bossuet,¹ Politzer,³ Rohrschneider,⁴ Peter,⁵ Grzedzielski,⁶ Okusawa,⁷ Leinfelder and Kerr,⁸ Goldmann and Liechti,⁹ von Szily,¹⁰ Krückmann,¹¹ Poppe¹²), whereas others, on the basis of the clinical characteristics of the cataract, have preferred the hypothesis of an indirect radiation effect induced by damage to the structures of the ciliary processes, with consequent nutritional disturbance of the lens