[Prematurely aging OXYS rats as an animal model of senile cataract in human].

Cataracts remain the major cause of blindness and acuity of vision deterioration in the elderly. To date there are no effective methods of preventive measures of this disease and surgical removal of cataract-damaged lenses remains the only way to restore vision. To explore cataract pathogenesis and development methods of its prophylaxis are necessary fundamental investigation, which is impossible without biological models. As the first Russian her senile cataract model it is suggested to use the senescence-accelerated OXYS rat strain which was developed 30 years ago by selection and inbreeding of rats Wistar susceptible to cataractogenic effect of galactose (Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk). We conducted strong selection by the early cataract during 13 generations of OXYS rats. As the result at present time changes of OXYS rat lens appear by the 2 month, at 6 months these changes appear in 100% of animals (in rats Wistar--5%), at 12 month cataract affects both eyes. The data suggest that the cataract in rats OXYS develops simultaneously with progressive macular degeneration while changes of the eye lenses morphologically correspond to senile cataract in man.