Tear IL-6 and IL-10 levels in HLA-B27-Associated Uveitis and Its clinical Implications

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To evaluate the cytokine levels in tear samples of human leukocyte antigen B27 (HLA-B27)-associated uveitis.

Methods: Twenty HLA-B27-associated uveitis patients and 10 non-HLA-B27 uveitis controls were enrolled for the estimation of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-10 levels in the tear samples. The cytokine levels were determined by flow cytometry using a bead-based assay.

Results: IL-6, and IL-10 levels and IL-6/IL-10 ratio were found to be higher in the tear samples of HLA-B27-associated uveitis patients as compared to controls. IL-6 levels were also elevated in the active disease as compared to the quiescent group; likewise, IL-6 levels were higher even in the quiescent phase in comparison to non-HLA-B27 disease control. Additionally, levels of IL-6 were significantly correlated with multiple disease episodes. Moreover, IL-6 showed a good area under the curve in receiver operating characteristic analysis.

Conclusions: Elevated tear IL-6 levels were associated with active disease and multiple disease episodes and thus could be used as putative markers for disease episodes.

KEYWORDS:

• Recurrence
• prognosis
• IL-6
• IL-10
• HLA-B27 uveitis

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr Pardeep Rai and Dr Vinay Gupta for their valuable supports from BD Biosciences.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (NK/5012/Study/66) and adheres to the guidelines of Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was taken from each patient participating in the study.