Sex Differences in RANTES (CCL5) in Patients With Intermediate Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Controls With no AMD.

PURPOSE

To determine if there are sex differences in levels of regulated upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) in patients with intermediate age-related macular degeneration (iAMD) and in controls with no AMD.

METHODS

Patients with iAMD and controls defined by multi-modal imaging were recruited into a Colorado AMD registry. Plasma levels of the chemokine RANTES were measured using a multiplex assay. A nonparametric (rank-based) regression model was fit to RANTES with a sex by AMD category interaction.

RESULTS

The plasma level of RANTES was significantly higher in the control group in comparison with the iAMD group. When moderated by sex, RANTES was significantly lower (P = 0.005) in males (median, 4525.6 pg/mL; interquartile range, 2589-7861 pg/mL) compared with females (median, 6686 pg/mL; interquartile range, 3485-12488 pg/mL) within the iAMD cohort. No significant difference was found in levels of RANTES between males and females in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

We found that levels of RANTES were moderated by sex in cases with iAMD with lower levels in males compared with females. The findings illustrate the importance of including sex as a biological variable in AMD research. There is a need for further studies of RANTES, stratified by sex, in the advanced phenotypes of AMD.

TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE

The biomarker RANTES identified in the plasma of patients with iAMD reflects systemic alterations when stratified by sex.