THE MORGAGNIAN AND BRUNESCENS CATARACT MORPHOLOGY STUDIES WITH SEM AND TEM

The Morgagnian cataract lenses - pre-fixed with GA for SEM & TEM and p ost-fixed with tannic-acid-arginine-OsO4 for SEM and OsO4/K4Fe(CN)6 fo r TEM after staining with Ur-acetate/Pb-citrate - showed areas in the cortex with radial in stead of concentric running lensfibres, degenera tion of lensfibres with vacuoles and defected ''ball & socket'' connec tions. The presence of oval/spherical bodies of 0.5-20 mum was acknowl edged, the largest of them having a golfball appearance and originatin g from the cytoplasm of the degenerating lensfibres; the smallest of t hem with an approximate size of 0.2-0.5 mum seemed to be formed by bud ding off from the microvilli of the furrowed lensepithelium. The Brune scens cataract lenses showed at low magnification no difference betwee n lensfibres from the cortical area and the nucleus. The desintegratio n process of the lensfibres was observable as degradation of the ball & socket system and the existance of holes in the lensfibre body and e merging of spherical bodies from the cytoplasm. The globular structure s seemed to be covered with a thin coating and were partly filled with a low density membranous-like material. In TEM-sections of the catara ctous lensmaterial vacuoles were visible consisting of a large number of smaller globules with a contents of low contrast low density membra nous-like material, comparable with the globular structures seen in SE M.