AUTHOR=Song Siyuan , Jin Kai , Wang Shuai , Yang Ce , Zhou Jingxin , Chen Zhiqing , Ye Juan 

TITLE=Retinal fluid is associated with cytokines of aqueous humor in age-related macular degeneration using automatic 3-dimensional quantification

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2023.1157497

DOI=10.3389/fcell.2023.1157497

ISSN=2296-634X

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> To explain the biological role of cytokines in the eye and the possible role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) by comparing the correlation between cytokine of aqueous humor concentration and optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal fluid.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) images and aqueous humor samples were collected from 20 nAMD patient’s three clinical visits. Retinal fluid volume in OCT was automatically quantified using deep learning--Deeplabv3+. Eighteen cytokines were detected in aqueous humor using the Luminex technology. OCT fluid volume measurements were correlated with changes in aqueous humor cytokine levels using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (PCC).</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> The patients with intraretinal fluid (IRF) showed significantly lower levels of cytokines, such as C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CXCL2) (<italic>p</italic> = 0.03) and CXCL11 (<italic>p</italic> = 0.009), compared with the patients without IRF. And the IRF volume was negatively correlated with CXCL2 (<italic>r</italic> = −0.407, <italic>p</italic> = 0.048) and CXCL11 (<italic>r</italic> = −0.410, <italic>p</italic> = 0.046) concentration in the patients with IRF. Meanwhile, the subretinal fluid (SRF) volume was positively correlated with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentration (r = 0.299, <italic>p</italic> = 0.027) and negatively correlated with interleukin (IL)-36β concentration (<italic>r</italic> = −0.295, <italic>p</italic> = 0.029) in the patients with SRF.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> Decreased level of VEGF was associated with decreased OCT-based retinal fluid volume in nAMD patients, while increased levels of CXCL2, CXCL11, and IL-36β were associated with decreased OCT-based retinal fluid volume in nAMD patients, which may suggest a role for inflammatory cytokines in retinal morphological changes and pathogenesis of nAMD patients.</p>