S.M. SHERIF, M.G. MONA

Biophysics and Laser Science Unit, Research Institute of Ophthalmology, Giza, Egypt. P.O. Box 90

Food and water deprivation-frequent torture methods occur for a variety of reasons. It may be used as a political tool or a method of self-harm. To the best of our knowledge, no solid data are available relating the long-term food deprivation and the eye lens, therefore; this study aims to clue this relation if any. Rats were food deprived for one, three and six days. The lenses were enucleated where both lipids and proteins were extracted for the analysis. The data showed that no specific changes in cholesterol, phospholipids and soluble lens protein contents; this is concomitant with changes in the thermal behavior of lens lipids. It may be concluded that the phase transition behavior and the different lipid microdomains play an essential role in the response of the lens to different food deprivation periods.

Corresponding author’s e-mail: sheri_sm@yahoo.com

Full text: PDF