Cytokines, chemokines and growth factors profile in human aqueous humor in idiopathic uveitis

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 1; p. e0254972
• Main Authors: Errera, Marie-Hélène, Pratas, Ana, Fisson, Sylvain, Manicom, Thomas, Boubaya, Marouane, Sedira, Neila, Héron, Emmanuel, Merabet, Lilia, Kobal, Alfred, Levy, Vincent, Warnet, Jean-Michel, Chaumeil, Christine, Brignole-Baudouin, Françoise, Sahel, José-Alain, Goldschmidt, Pablo, Bodaghi, Bahram, Bloch-Queyrat, Coralie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21.01.2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Age; Aqueous Humor; Aqueous humour; Autoimmune diseases; Behcet's syndrome; Biology and Life Sciences; Cataracts; Chemokines; CXC chemokines; Cytokines; Departments; Development and progression; Diabetes; Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor; Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor; Growth factors; Health aspects; Helper cells; Hospitals; Human health and pathology; Hypotheses; Immune response; Immunoassay; Immunology; Immunopathogenesis; Inflammation; Interleukin 1; Interleukin 12; Interleukin 17; Interleukin 21; Interleukin 23; Interleukin 6; Interleukin 8; Interleukin 9; Internal medicine; IP-10 protein; Laboratories; Life Sciences; Lymphocytes T; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1; Ophthalmology; Pathogenesis; Pharmacy; Physiological aspects; Sarcoidosis; Statistical analysis; Statistical methods; Subgroups; Toxoplasmosis; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Uveitis; Vascular endothelial growth factor; γ-Interferon; France; United States > US; Paris France; Pennsylvania
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254972

To investigate which cytokines, chemokines and growth factors are involved in the immunopathogenesis of idiopathic uveitis, and whether cytokine profiles are associated with. Serum and aqueous humor (AH) samples of 75 patients with idiopathic uveitis were analyzed by multiplex immunoassay. Infectious controls consisted of 16 patients with ocular toxoplasmosis all confirmed by intraocular fluid analyses. Noninfectious controls consisted of 7 patients with Behçet disease related uveitis and 15 patients with sarcoidosis related uveitis. The control group consisted of AH and serum samples from 47 noninflammatory control patients with age-related cataract. In each sample, 27 immune mediators ± IL-21 and IL-23 were measured. In idiopathic uveitis, 13 of the 29 mediators, including most proinflammatory and vascular mediators such as IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, G-CSF, GM-CSF, MCP-1, IP-10, TNF-α and VEGF, were significantly elevated in the aqueous humor when compared to all controls. Moreover, IL-17, IP-10, and IL-21, were significantly elevated in the serum when compared to all controls. We clustered 4 subgroups of idiopathic uveitis using a statistical analysis of hierarchical unsupervised classification, characterized by the order of magnitude of concentrations of intraocular cytokines. The pathogenesis of idiopathic uveitis is characterized by the presence of predominantly proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines and vascular endothelial growth factor with high expression levels as compared to other causes of uveitis. There are indications for obvious Th-1/ IL21-Th17 pathways but also IL9-Th9 and increased IFN-γ-inducing cytokine (IL12) and IFN-γ-inducible CXC chemokine (IP-10). The combined data suggest that immune mediator expression is different among idiopathic uveitis. This study suggests various clusters among the idiopathic uveitis group rather than one specific uveitis entity.