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Abstract
A high level of fat in the diet of galactose-fed weanling rats has been reportedto delay the onset of mature cataracts. Groups of rats fed lab chow, sucrose, and galactose-high-fat diets had essentially similar total fatty acid compositions in their lenses, but rats receiving a low level of corn oil in a galactose diet were observed to have differences in the long-chain unsaturated fatty acids when compared to the control groups. This observation suggests that the lenses of unsupplemented galactose-fed rats have a relative deficiency of certain longchain unsaturated fatty acidsand might account for the difference in the time of mature cataract formation which has been observed with the two diets.