Possibility of clinical application of vitamin E to cataract prevention

Abstract

It has teen implicated that oxidative stress is involved in the development of aged-related and diabetic cataracts in humans and also in cataract development in a variety of in vivo experimental cataract models. Therefore, this article will review the possibility of the clinical application of vitamin E to cataract prevention, based on data concerning the level of vitamin E in normal and cataractous lenses of humans and experimental animals, the relationship between dietary vitamin E intake and the risk of cataracts, the effect of vitamin E supplementation on cataract development in humans, and the effect of oral or parenteral vitamin E treatment or topical vitamin E instillation on cataract development in a variety of in vivo experimental cataract models. These data reported so far may allow us to think of a possibility that vitamin E is clinically applied to cataract development.