Abstract
Purpose:
To examine the aqueous humor levels of inflammatory cytokines in chronic retinal vein occlusion (RVO).
Methods:
This is an IRB-approved prospective study. From Sep. 2010 to Jun. 2013, consecutive patients were recruited at JCHO Tokyo Shinjuku Medical Center. Aqueous humors were collected just before intravitreal bevacizumab injections. Treatment-naive patients whose onset was within 3 months were defined as an acute group. Patients received injections whose RVO durations were more than a year were defined as a chronic group. Patients who had received periocular steroid injection within three months or retinal photocoagulation were excluded. Concentrations of IP-10, MCP-1, MMP-9, IL-6, IL-10, CXCL1, CXCL13, CCL11, and CXCL12 were measured using multiplex cytokine assay. Log-transformed concentrations were compared to control using multiple linear regression after adjusting for sex, age, axial length, and posterior vitreous detachment.
Results:
10 acute branch RVO (BRVO), 6 chronic BRVO, 4 acute central RVO (CRVO), 4 chronic CRVO, and 80 control eyes, whose aqueous humor was collected at cataract surgery, were used for analysis. In acute BRVO, only IL-10 was decreased (P=0.04). In contrast, in chronic BRVO, there was no change in the cytokine levels. In acute CRVO, IP-10 (220 pg/mL vs 73, p=0.007), IL-6 (11 vs 4.9, p=0.02), CXCL12 (570 vs 190, p=0.001) were increased. In contrast, in chronic CRVO, MCP-1 (160 vs 500, p=0.002), CCL11 (1.7 vs7.0, p=0.04), CXCL12 (77 vs 190, p=0.049), CXCL13 (1.1 vs 5.1, p=0.01) were decreased.
Conclusions:
Several inflammatory cytokines are elevated in acute RVO as previously demonstrated; however, no cytokines were elevated in chronic BRVO and several inflammatory cytokines are rather suppressed in chronic CRVO.