Abstract
Purpose:
Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is a vaso-proliferative eye disease in premature babies with low gestational age (≤32 weeks) and birth weight (≤1,700g) and is characterized by abnormal retinal vascular development. The present study aimed to evaluate the levels of inflammatory and angiogenic factors in ROP for understanding their involvement in the disease process.
Methods:
Vitreous humor (50-100μl) were collected from patients (n=30) with stage IV and V of ROP (classified as per ICROP guidelines) along with infants with congenital cataract as control subjects (n=30) undergoing vitrectomy, with prior informed consent from their parents. The concentrations of 28 proteins involved in neuro-degeneration, extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, angiogenesis and inflammatory pathways in pre-diluted vitreous (1:5) samples were evaluated using multiplex bead immunoassays based on Luminex xMAP technology. Differences between levels of these proteins were analyzed using appropriate statistical tests followed by validations by western blotting.
Results:
Of all the analytes evaluated, 21/28 could be detected in the vitreous humor of these subjects. Patients with ROP exhibited significant elevations in MMP9 (p=0.035), CFH (p=0.002), C3 (p=0.006), C4 (=0.0009), Prealbumin (p=0.012), SAP (p=0.026), APOA1 (p=0.002) and APOC3 (p=0.006) compared to the controls. The concentrations of the remaining proteins in the vitreous humor were not significantly different between the patients and controls (p>0.05).
Conclusions:
The elevated levels of 8/21 proteins in the vitreous humor of patients indicated that abnormal immune environments and ECM components might play a role in the development of ROP.
Keywords: 706 retinopathy of prematurity •
660 proteins encoded by disease genes •
763 vitreous