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The Arrest of Nutritional Cataract by the Use of Riboflavin¹

Two Figures

Departments of Physiological Chemistry and Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Arkansas, Little Rock

Young albino rats were given a diet deficient in flavin and their eyes were examined at frequent intervals with the ophthalmoscope. Of sixteen control animals receiving the deficient diet without supplement, thirteen (81%) developed cataract at an average time of 52 days. The cataract proceeded to maturity in twelve (75%) of these rats, at an average time of 67 days. The average survival was 74 days.

When early cataractous changes were evident, twenty-five rats were given intramuscular injections of riboflavin in doses of 120 micrograms twice weekly. The animals rapidly increased in weight, new hair appeared on those rats with alopecia, and keratitis slowly cleared up. In eleven of these rats cataract was arrested in both eyes. In each of six other rats the cataract proceeded to maturity in one eye, but its progress was definitely arrested in the other eye. The cataract proceeded to maturity in both eyes of two rats. Six rats were found to have clear lenses in both eyes after the keratitis cleared up. It is thus apparent that the progress of cataract development was arrested by riboflavin administration in seventeen out of nineteen animals exhibiting cataract (89.5%). These data furnish additional evidence that flavin is the cataract-preventive vitamin.

Manuscript received 19 July 1937.