Abstract
Purpose :
To assess proangiogenic factors and inflammatory mediators in the tears of preterm infants and correlate them with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
Methods :
Twenty Asian Indian infants were subjected to tear sample collection during the course of their ROP screening. Infants born ≤ 2000 grams and/or ≤ 34 weeks were enrolled. The first sample was collected before a postnatal age of thirty days and subsequent tear samples during follow-up visits until either of the three outcomes were achieved: mature retina without ROP, spontaneously regressed ROP or treatment required ROP. Tear samples were collected using Schirmer strips (15 mm) for each eye at each visit. Two gestational age matched cohorts: Group 1: any stage ROP (n=10 cases) and Group 2: No ROP (n=10 controls) were correlated for the clinical outcomes and tear concentrations of proangiogenic factors (VEGF-A, angiogenin and fractalkine), adhesion molecules (VCAM-1 and ICAM-1) and inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-8, RANTES, CD 62L and MCP-1) which were assessed using cytometric bead array. Statistical analysis was done using graphpad prism 6.
Results :
The level of VEGF-A was significantly upregulated (CI -632.7 to -187.3, p=0.04) in infants with ROP compared to the No ROP group in the final visit sample. The level of VEGF-A (p<0.0001) and angiogenin (p=0.02) were significantly increased between the first and final visit in infants with ROP. At final presentation, infants with ROP had a significantly higher level of fractalkine (CI -532.6 to -91.3, p<0.0004) and RANTES (CI -9.50 to -0.32, p=0.008) compared to infants without ROP. The other study factors were not found to be significantly associated with ROP.
Conclusions :
This pilot study demonstrates that tears of preterm infants contain angiogenic and inflammatory factors that may be assessed non-invasively. VEGF-A, angiogenin, fractalkine and RANTES were significantly upregulated in infants with ROP at different PMAs. This may help us better understand ROP progression and response to therapy.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.