Purpose: : To evaluate the concentration of various cytokines in the aqueous humor of patients with naive, recurrent, and regressed choroidal neovascularization (CNV) of age-related macular degeneration after bevacizumab treatment.
Methods: : Aqueous humor samples were collected from 36 eyes with age-related macular degeneration and 10 controls during cataract surgery. Of 36 patients with age-related macular degeneration, 5 eyes were naïve to bevacizumab injection, 14 eyes had recurrent CNV after bevacizumab treatment, and 17 eyes had regressed CNV after bevacizumab treatment. Cytokines were measured by an immunoassay using multianalyte biochip array technology (Evidence investigator cytokine and growth factor biochip array, RANDOX laboratories Ltd., Crumlin, UK).
Results: : No significant difference in the cytokine levels was noted between the control group and the naïve CNV group (all P > 0.05). Vascular endothelial growth factor in both naive (66.8 +/- 35.1 pg/mL) and recurrent CNV groups (55.7 +/- 63.0 pg/mL) was significantly higher compared with regressed CNV group (9.8 +/- 12.8 pg/mL, P = 0.025 and P = 0.004, respectively) but was not statistically different from the control group (81.8 +/- 43.7 pg/mL, P = 0.310 and P = 0.212, respectively). The aqueous humor level of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin (IL)-2 was significantly lower in recurrent CNV group (P = 0.036 and P = 0.019) compared with the control group. In the active CNV patients (recurrent and naïve CNV groups), the aqueous humor levels of IL-6 and IL-8 significantly correlated with the size of CNV (rho = 0.692, P = 0.001 and rho = 0.745, P < 0.001, respectively).
Conclusion: : Levels of Vascular endothelial growth factor measured in the aqueous humor were significantly related to the disease activity of CNV in age-related macular degeneration. Moreover, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha may be related to the activity of CNV.