Abstract
Purpose:
To examine changes of aqueous cytokines and growth factors in human subjects of different ages.
Methods:
Aqueous humor was collected from cataract patients with no other ocular abnormalities, no systemic inflammatory diseases at the start of cataract surgery. Levels of 48 different proinflammatory mediators, including cytokines, chemokines and growth factors were measured using Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine panels and analyzed using Predictive Analytics SoftWare (PASW) Statistics 18. This study was performed in accordance to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Xinhua Hospital.
Results:
We collected 157 aqueous samples, 34 from patients with congenital cataract patients, 123 from adult cataract patients. The median age was 0.67 years (range 0.2-6.5 yrs) for the former group and 67.5 years (range 22-108 yrs) for the latter group. Initial analysis of 34 congenital and 53 adult cataract patient aqueous samples revealed 29 factors which existed in over 90% of all samples tested. Mann-Whitney U test revealed significantly lower concentration of IL-7, IL-12p70, GROα, IFN-α2 and MCP-3 in the infantile group than in the adult cataract group. FGF-basic, IL-1Rα, TNF-α, IL-9 and SCGF-β was significantly higher in the infantile group than the adult cataract group. In adult cataract group, a positive correlation was found between age and axial length. Regression analysis showed significant positive correlation between age and aqueous concentration of IL-7 (p=0.00, beta=0.69), VEGF (p=0.023, beta=-0.392), IL-12 (p=0.022, beta=0.393), IL-10 (p=0.052, beta=0.34), IFN-γ (p=0.013, beta=0.434), IFN-α2 (p=0.022, beta=0.485), MIP-1α (p=0.007, beta=0.45), SCF (p=0.012, beta=0.496), CXCL9 (p=0.006, beta=0.629).
Conclusions:
This study revealed a basic profile of aqueous cytokines, chemokines and growth factors in cataract aqueous, providing a reference for further study using cataract aqueous as control. So far our results showed an increasing Th1 dominant proinflammatory activity and increasing proangiogenic activity with aging in the aqueous of adult cataract patients. The cytokine profile also suggested age-related activation of residential macrophages and structural cells of the intraocular tissue.
Keywords: 490 cytokines/chemokines •
427 aqueous •
557 inflammation