Cytokine and Chemokine Profile Changes in Patients with Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration After Intravitreal Ranibizumab Injection for Choroidal Neovascularization

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the concentrations of cytokine and chemokines profiling in aqueous humor for choroidal neovascularization (CNV) due to neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) before and during Intravitreal injection of ranibizumab (IVR) and its relation with the disease’s active state.

Methods

The cytokine levels in aqueous humour were detected by the Bio-Plex^® 200 System and the Bio-Plex™ Human Cytokine Standard 27-Plex, Group I. Aqueous humour samples of experimental group were collected from 19 patients diagnosed nAMD at baseline and at 1 month after IVR. Aqueous humour samples of control group were collected from 20 patients undergoing cataract surgery.

Results

Aqueous humor levels of basic fibroblast growth factor (basic FGF) and RANTES were significantly lower in nAMD patients than in the control group (P=0.044 and P<0.001, respectively). Vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) was significantly higher in nAMD patients than in the control group (P < 0.001). The average Eotaxin levels were significantly higher in nAMD patients after IVR than before (P=0.03). Contrarily, the average VEGF-A levels were significantly lower in AMD patients after IVR than before (P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Angiogenic, growth factors and inflammatory are involved in the formation of neovascularization of AMD patients. IVR did not cause significant differences in any growth factors or inflammatory cytokines in nAMD patients with the exception of VEGF.

Keywords:

• choroidal neovascularization
• CNV
• neovascular age-related macular degeneration
• nAMD
• ranibizumab
• cytokines

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81470025 and 81472081), and Shanghai Municipal Planning Commission of Science and Research Fund (No. SHDC2020CR5014 and No. ZY-ZWB-1001-CPJS10). Tingting Sun, Qingquan Wei, and Peng Gao are co-first authors for this study.

Informed Consent

All participant details were de-identified and anonymous. We intend to share all of the individual participant data collected during the trial immediately after publication. All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this article.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.