Biophysical aspects of corneal and lenticular transparency.

The chemical composition and morphology of the cornea and lens can provide significant information regarding what wavelengths of nonionizing radiation these two tissue should absorb and transmit. Such data, including a variety of parameters determined by biophysical techniques, can provide us with information regarding the molecular basis for corneal and lenticular transparency and the subtle changes occurring with aging and ambient radiation exposure during our lifetime. The biophysical approach (fluorescence and NMR spectroscopy) has already provided new clinical tools for studying and delineating the initial events responsible for eventual opacification in these two tissues, months to years before they become manifest by current conventional clinical methods of examination.