Higher Intraocular Levels of Inflammatory Factors are Related to Retinal Vascular and Neurodegeneration in Myopic Retinopathy

Ling Zeng; Zhikuan Yang; Wei Pan; Ding Lin; Yao Tang; Baihua Chen; Heping Xu; Xiaoning Li

doi:10.2147/JIR.S484338

Higher Intraocular Levels of Inflammatory Factors are Related to Retinal Vascular and Neurodegeneration in Myopic Retinopathy

J Inflamm Res. 2024 Dec 11:17:10889-10900. doi: 10.2147/JIR.S484338. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Ling Zeng^{1

2

3

4}, Zhikuan Yang^{1

2

3}, Wei Pan^{1

3}, Ding Lin², Yao Tang^{1

2

3}, Baihua Chen⁴, Heping Xu^{1

3

5}, Xiaoning Li^{1

2

3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Aier Academy of Ophthalmology, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China.
² Changsha Aier Eye Hospital, Changsha, People's Republic of China.
³ Aier Institute of Optometry and Vision Science, Aier Eye Hospital Group, Changsha, People's Republic of China.
⁴ The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People's Republic of China.
⁵ The Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
⁶ Aier School of Optometry and Vision Science, Hubei University of Science and Technology, Xianning, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Purpose: In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the intraocular levels of inflammatory factors and myopia-related retinal vascular and neuronal degeneration.

Patients and methods: One hundred and forty-seven patients with Implantable Collamer Lens (ICL) implantation were enrolled and all participants received comprehensive ophthalmic examination. About 100~150 ul of aqueous humor was collected immediately before ICL surgery. The levels of inflammatory factors including Aggrecan, April, BAFF, CCL5, CD163, Chi3l1, gp130, IL-6Rα, IL-8, IL-10, IL-11, IL-12, IL-19, IL-27, IL-28A, IL-34, IFN-β, IFN-γ, MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3 and PTX3 in the aqueous humor were measured using the Luminex Multiplexing system.

Results: Results showed that aqueous humor levels of pro-inflammatory factors Chi3l1, IL-6Rα, IL-8, IL-12, IL-27, inflammation-related cytokines April, BAFF and IL-34 progressively increased from the progression of myopic retinopathy. Conversely, the aqueous levels of IL-11 and Aggrecan gradually decreased from the progression of myopic retinopathy. Correlation analysis showed that the intraocular levels of Chi3l1, IL-6Rα, IL-8, IL-27 and BAFF were negatively correlated with retinal vascular density. The intraocular level of IL-6Rα was negatively correlated with retinal neuronal thickness. Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) analysis revealed that Chi3l1 and Aggrecan were the upstream cytokines that affect IL-10 and IL-8 in the pathological myopic eyes. KEGG pathway analysis showed that cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, rheumatoid arthritis, and chagas disease were influenced by these altered inflammatory factors (adjusted p-value<0.001).

Conclusion: The production of inflammatory factors in the eyes of individuals with high myopia and pathological myopia was altered, and the elevated levels of intraocular pro-inflammatory factors such as Chi3l1, IL-6Rα, and IL-8 were closely associated with myopia-related retinal microvascular and neurodegeneration.

Keywords: aqueous humor; inflammation; myopic chorioretinal atrophy; posterior staphyloma.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Hunan Provincial Natural Foundation (2023JJ70031 and 2023JJ70036), the Research Fund Project of AIER Eye Hospital Group (AM2201D02, AMK2303D05 and AMF2403D02), the Innovation Platform and Talents Project of Hunan Province (2022WZ1023) and the Key Research and Development Project of Science and Technology Department of Hubei Province (2020BCB013). The sponsor or funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of this research.