Retinal fluid is associated with cytokines of aqueous humor in age-related macular degeneration using automatic 3-dimensional quantification.

To explain the biological role of cytokines in the eye and the possible role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) by comparing the correlation between cytokine of aqueous humor concentration and optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal fluid. Spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) images and aqueous humor samples were collected from 20 nAMD patient's three clinical visits. Retinal fluid volume in OCT was automatically quantified using deep learning--Deeplabv3+. Eighteen cytokines were detected in aqueous humor using the Luminex technology. OCT fluid volume measurements were correlated with changes in aqueous humor cytokine levels using Pearson's correlation coefficient (PCC). The patients with intraretinal fluid (IRF) showed significantly lower levels of cytokines, such as C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CXCL2) ( = 0.03) and CXCL11 ( = 0.009), compared with the patients without IRF. And the IRF volume was negatively correlated with CXCL2 ( = -0.407, = 0.048) and CXCL11 ( = -0.410, = 0.046) concentration in the patients with IRF. Meanwhile, the subretinal fluid (SRF) volume was positively correlated with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentration (r = 0.299, = 0.027) and negatively correlated with interleukin (IL)-36β concentration ( = -0.295, = 0.029) in the patients with SRF. Decreased level of VEGF was associated with decreased OCT-based retinal fluid volume in nAMD patients, while increased levels of CXCL2, CXCL11, and IL-36β were associated with decreased OCT-based retinal fluid volume in nAMD patients, which may suggest a role for inflammatory cytokines in retinal morphological changes and pathogenesis of nAMD patients.