Abstract
Purpose:
We previously reported the prevalence of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) to be lower in eyes with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and that, eyes with PVD had a lower concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the aqueous humor. Herein, we investigated changes in the concentrations of various cytokines in the aqueous humor and their correlation with PVD in eyes with AMD and normal control eyes.
Methods:
This is a prospective IRB-approved study. We studied 53 eyes with exudative AMD initially treated with ranibizumab, and 79 receiving cataract surgery without fundus lesions (control eyes) at Tokyo Kosei Nenkin Hospital. Among the 5 eyes, 22 eyes were with typical AMD and 31 were with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV). Concentrations of the following cytokines were determined using a multiplex cytokine assay: IP-10, MCP-1, MMP-9, CXCL 12, IL-6, IL-10, CXCL 1, CXCL 13, and CCL 11. Explanatory variables were age, sex, type of disease (typical AMD, PCV, and control), greatest linear diameter of the lesion (μm), disease duration (months), axial length of the eye (mm), PVD, and vitreomacular adhesion. Response variables were the concentrations of the various cytokines. For model selection in the general linear model, Akaike's Information Criterion was used.
Results:
The cytokine level results were nearly log-normally distributed. The correlation coefficient was very high (approximately 0.9) for the levels of CXCL 13, IP-10, and MMP-9. Other correlation coefficients did not exceed 0.5. PVD remained as an explanatory variable in a good fit model for IP-10 (p < 0.0001*), MCP-1 (p = 0.0009*), MMP-9 (p = 0.0051*), CXCL 12 (p = 0.0182), IL-6 (p < 0.0001*), IL-10 (p = 0.0082), CXCL 13 (p < 0.0001*), and CCL 11(p = 0.1734). These levels were reduced in the presence of PVD (*: P<0.05). PVD did not remain significant in the model selection for CXCL 1.
Conclusions:
Concentrations of many cytokines as well as VEGF in the anterior chamber were significantly reduced in the presence of PVD. Together with the previous reports showing that Intraocular substance diffusion is increased in the presence of PVD, the current results supports that intraocular concentrations of many cytokines are reduced because of the increased substance diffusion in the presence of PVD.
Keywords: 412 age-related macular degeneration •
763 vitreous •
490 cytokines/chemokines