Abstract
Purpose
Uveitis accounts for 10–15% of all cases of blindness in the developed world. Uveitic macular edema (UME) is a primary cause of permanent visual impairment in patients with uveitis. Because proinflammatory mediators elicit inflammation and lead to UME, we determined the profiles of proinflammatory mediators associated with complications, such as ME, in the vitreous humor of patients with panuveitis related to Behçet’s disease (BD) and sarcoidosis.
Methods
In this retrospective study, we enrolled 21 patients with uveitis, including 6 with BD and 15 with sarcoidosis, and 15 patients with idiopathic epiretinal membrane (iERM) at the Department of Ophthalmology, Kyushu University Hospital, between January 2008 and April 2016. Vitreous concentrations of 32 proinflammatory mediators, including cytokines and soluble receptors of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin (IL)-6 families, were assessed using a bead-based multiplex assay and their association with clinical data was examined.
Results
The levels of proinflammatory mediators, including a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL), B cell activating factor belonging to the TNF family (BAFF), soluble cluster of differentiation 30 (sCD30), soluble TNF receptor-1 (sTNFR1), sTNFR2, TNF-α, IL-6, and soluble IL-6 receptor-α (sIL-6Rα), were significantly higher in patients with uveitis. With regard to clinical parameters in patients with uveitis, vitreous levels of BAFF and sIL-6Rα were prominently elevated in patients with UME compared to in those without UME (P < 0.01, respectively).
Conclusions
Our results suggest that elevated vitreous levels of BAFF and sIL-6Rα are associated with the pathogenesis of UME in patients with panuveitis related to BD and sarcoidosis.
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Availability of data and material
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, A.T., upon reasonable request.
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Funding
This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP18K09471 and JP21K09745 (grants C to AT) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan (Tokyo, Japan), and grants from Novartis Pharma Research Grants (AT; Tokyo, Japan), Alcon Pharma Research Grants (AT; Tokyo, Japan), and AMO Japan Research Grants (AT; Tokyo, Japan).
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Conceptualization: Atsunobu Takeda and Koh-Hei Sonoda; data curation: Atsunobu Takeda, Yusuke Murakami, and Toshio Hisatomi; formal analysis: Eiichi Hasegawa; investigation: Atsunobu Takeda, Keijiro Ishikawa, and Shoji Notomi; methodology: Atsunobu Takeda, Kazuhiro Kimura; project administration: Nobuyo Yawata and Koh-Hei Sonoda; writing – original draft preparation: Atsunobu Takeda; writing – review and editing: Nobuyo Yawata and Koh-Hei Sonoda; funding acquisition: Atsunobu Takeda; resources: Atsunobu Takeda, Kazuhiro Kimura, and Koh-Hei Sonoda; supervision: Koh-Hei Sonoda. All authors have read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Kyushu University Institutional Review Board for Clinical Research and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This work was approved by the Kyushu University Institutional Review Board for Clinical Research. Written informed consent was obtained from all the participants before any study procedures or examinations were performed.
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Takeda, A., Hasegawa, E., Yawata, N. et al. Increased vitreous levels of B cell activation factor (BAFF) and soluble interleukin-6 receptor in patients with macular edema due to uveitis related to Behçet’s disease and sarcoidosis. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 260, 2675–2686 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-022-05600-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-022-05600-1