Which category describes non-genetic causes of cataracts related to metabolism?

Which category describes non-genetic causes of cataracts related to metabolism?

• A. Heritable
• B. Metabolic
• C. Traumatic
• D. Nutritional

Answer: (B)

Non-genetic cataracts caused by the body’s metabolic processes arise when systemic metabolism alters the lens’s chemical environment and protein stability. In conditions like diabetes, excess glucose in the lens is converted to sorbitol, which accumulates because it doesn’t diffuse out easily. This creates an osmotic imbalance, draws water into the lens, and promotes protein aggregation, leading to cloudy areas. Similar ideas apply to other metabolic disturbances, such as galactosemia, where sugar alcohols build up in the lens and cause osmotic stress and opacities, and to long-term nonenzymatic changes from prolonged high glucose that form advanced glycation end-products, altering crystallin proteins. These pathways are driven by metabolism rather than by direct genetic changes, trauma, or dietary deficiencies, which is why metabolic best describes these non-genetic, metabolism-related cataracts.

Non-genetic cataracts caused by the body’s metabolic processes arise when systemic metabolism alters the lens’s chemical environment and protein stability. In conditions like diabetes, excess glucose in the lens is converted to sorbitol, which accumulates because it doesn’t diffuse out easily. This creates an osmotic imbalance, draws water into the lens, and promotes protein aggregation, leading to cloudy areas. Similar ideas apply to other metabolic disturbances, such as galactosemia, where sugar alcohols build up in the lens and cause osmotic stress and opacities, and to long-term nonenzymatic changes from prolonged high glucose that form advanced glycation end-products, altering crystallin proteins. These pathways are driven by metabolism rather than by direct genetic changes, trauma, or dietary deficiencies, which is why metabolic best describes these non-genetic, metabolism-related cataracts.