Immunological biomarkers of the vitreous responsible for proliferative alteration in the different forms of retinal detachment

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to explore the immunological components that are responsible for the proliferative alterations in the different forms of retinal detachment (RD). METHODS: Vitreous fluids were collected during 23G pars plana vitrectomy from 54 eyes of 54 patients with different RD types, such as rhegmatogenous RD (RRD) without proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) (n = 30), PVR (n = 16) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) with tractional RD (n = 8). Vitreous fluids were obtained from 19 eyes with epiretinal membrane (ERM), which were used as control samples. A multiplex chemiluminescent immunoassay was performed to evaluate the concentrations of 48 cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. RESULTS: The expression levels of eotaxin, IFN-gamma, IL-6, IL-8, IL-16, MCP-1, MIF and MIP-1 beta were significantly higher in all RD groups than in the ERM group. The levels of CTACK, IP-10, SCGF-beta, and SDF-1 alpha were significantly higher in patients with diabetic tractional RD and PVR than in other patients. The upregulation of VEGF and IL-18 was detected in PDR. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that complex and significant immunological mechanisms are associated with the pathogenesis of different forms of RD: selected cytokines, chemokines and growth factors are upregulated in the vitreous of eyes with RD. The detected proteins are present in different concentrations both in RRD and PVR. In the presence of PVR and PDR, the majority of cytokines are upregulated; thus, they may serve as biomarkers to estimate the progression or severity level of proliferation and later to develop personalized therapeutic strategies to slow down or prevent pathological changes.