Plasma levels of inflammatory chemokines in patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

Abstract

Purpose: Chemokines are a group of cytokines that guide immune cell migration. We studied plasma levels of inflammatory chemokines in patients with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) and compared with healthy agematched control individuals. Methods: This was a clinic-based prospective case-control study of participants (n = 60) with either PCV (n = 26) or age-matched healthy controls (n = 34). We sampled fresh venous blood and isolated plasma for analysis. We used U-PLEX Human Assays to quantify concentrations of the inflammatory chemokines MCP-1/CCL2, RANTES/CCL5, eotaxin/CCL11, IP-10/CXCL10 and fractalkine/CX3CL1. Results: Plasma levels of fractalkine was significantly higher in patients with PCV when compared to healthy controls (mean AE SD: 7291 AE 2461 pg/ml versus 5879 AE 2001 pg/ml; p = 0.021). Plasma levels of MCP-1 (p = 0.846), RANTES (p = 0.288), eotaxin (p = 0.496) and IP-10 (p = 0.352) did not differ significantly between the groups. To evaluate possible biomarker quality of fractalkine, we used a ROC analysis and found a positive but weak discriminatory ability (AUC = 0.68). Conclusion: Patients with PCV have a higher plasma level of fractalkine. Although the differences do not possess strong biomarker qualities, they inform on disease processes of a poorly understood disease and suggest that the fractalkine-CX3CR1 axis may be involved. As this study did not investigate local chemokine concentrations, we are unable to confirm or disprove any local chorioretinal interaction, and our findings should be interpreted with such caution.

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition‐related serum markers ET‐1, IL‐8 and TGF‐β2 are elevated in a Finnish wet age‐related macular degeneration cohort

“…Wet AMD patient eyes were primarily evaluated using OCT, while FAG and indocyanine green staining were utilized when required to get accurate assessment of the AMD and atrophy classifications as recently established (Table 2) (Sørensen et al. 2020; Spaide et al. 2020; Wu et al.…”

“…Wet AMD patient eyes were primarily evaluated using OCT, while FAG and indocyanine green staining were utilized when required to get accurate assessment of the AMD and atrophy classifications as recently established (Table 2) (Sørensen et al 2020;Spaide et al 2020;Wu et al 2021). Each available eye was classified as having one of the following: dry AMD, occult AMD, classic AMD, polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy or retinal angiomatous proliferation.…”

Short-Term Efficacy in Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy Patients Treated With Intravitreal Aflibercept or Conbercept

“…In addition to VEGF, underlying inflammation is a possible pathogenic mechanism in PCV, since patients with this condition have a higher plasma level of inflammatory chemokines ( 14 ). The various outcomes of PCV depend on a range of etiologies ( 15 ).…”

Complement Activation Products and Cytokines in Pachychoroid Neovasculopathy and Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

“…Systemically, C3a levels in plasma increase, 42 but not those of MCP-1, in PCV patients. 43 The chemokine receptors between PCV and nAMD were reportedly different. 44 The difference of systemic immunity may change the phenotypes of CNV.…”