How does a cataract form when lens fibers lose their regular arrangement?

The transparency of the crystalline lens is fundamentally dependent on the highly regular, organized arrangement of its internal lens fibers. These fibers are normally packed in a precise, layered structure that allows light to pass through the organ effectively.12

When the growth or maintenance of these fibers is disrupted, it leads to the formation of abnormal fibers or irregular structural arrangements. Because these disordered fibers cannot transmit light as efficiently as the normal, orderly structure, they create an opacity within the lens. When this opacity becomes severe enough to interfere with vision, it is clinically defined as a cataract.1