RESEARCH ARTICLE
Aqueous Flare, Functional-Morphological Parameters, and Cytokines in Age-Related Macular Degeneration after Anti-VEGF Treatment
Ryosuke Motohashi1, Hidetaka Noma1, *, Kanako Yasuda1, Yuko Kasezawa1, Hiroshi Goto2, Masahiko Shimura1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2021Volume: 15
First Page: 209
Last Page: 216
Publisher ID: TOOPHTJ-15-209
DOI: 10.2174/1874364102115010209
Article History:
Received Date: 19/1/2021Revision Received Date: 14/6/2021
Acceptance Date: 23/6/2021
Electronic publication date: 10/11/2021
Collection year: 2021
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Purpose:
The role of inflammation and cytokines in AMD and anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (anti-VEGF) treatment remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether anti-VEGF treatment for exudative Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) affects aqueous flare value (an indicator of inflammation), functional-morphologic parameters, and aqueous humor levels of cytokines or inflammatory mediators.
Methods:
We compared aqueous humor levels of 8 cytokines, growth factors (including VEGF), and inflammatory mediators in 43 patients who received anti-VEGF treatment with aflibercept for AMD and 24 healthy controls by the suspension array method. In addition, we measured aqueous flare values with a laser flare meter and Central Macular Thickness (CMT) and Macular Volume (MV) by optical coherence tomography.
Results:
The patient group had a significantly higher aqueous flare value than the control group. At baseline, CMT showed significant correlations with aqueous humor levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-8 and MV, with aqueous humor levels of VEGF, sICAM-1, MCP-1, IL-6, and IL-8. Moreover, we found significant correlations between aqueous flare value and aqueous humor levels of MCP-1, IL-6, IL-8, and interferon-gamma–inducible protein 10. One month after anti-VEGF treatment, the patient group showed a significant correlation between the change in MV and improvement in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA); CMT showed no such correlation.
Conclusion:
Inflammation appears to be involved in AMD. Change in MV may be an index of improvement in BCVA in patients receiving anti-VEGF treatment for AMD.