Lee Hyungwoo, Lee Minsub, Kim Najung, Kim Nahee, Moon Dayoung, Son Chanok, Chung Hyewon
Department of Ophthalmology, Konkuk University Medical Center, 120-1 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 05030, Republic of Korea.
Department of Ophthalmology, Konkuk University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 16;15(1):17080. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-93472-w.
Using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), we studied the relationships between consecutive aflibercept treatments, soluble CD14 (sCD14) in the aqueous humor (AH), and anatomical features, including hyper-reflective foci (HFs) and other morphologic characteristics. This prospective study included 23 eyes of 23 patients with DME treated with five consecutive monthly intravitreal aflibercept injections. At each visit, sCD14 and VEGF levels in the AH were measured using ELISA. The number of HFs, central macular thickness (CMT), and volume of intraretinal fluid (IRF) and subretinal fluid (SRF) were also assessed. One month after fifth injections, there were significant decreases in CMT, the number of HFs, and the volumes of IRF and SRF. The level of sCD14 also decreased. Although sCD14 levels showed a downward trend, the change was not statistically significant. The group with reduced sCD14 exhibited improvements in all the factors, including visual acuity. In contrast, the group with increased sCD14 only showed significant decreases in CMT. When the data were categorized into two groups based on the final visual outcome, patients with good final visual acuity had consistently lower levels of sCD14 at all visits. This study highlights sCD14 as a potential biomarker for assessing treatment response to aflibercept in DME.
我们对糖尿病性黄斑水肿（DME）患者使用频域光学相干断层扫描（SD - OCT），研究了连续多次阿柏西普治疗、房水（AH）中可溶性CD14（sCD14）与包括高反射灶（HFs）在内的解剖学特征及其他形态学特征之间的关系。这项前瞻性研究纳入了23例DME患者的23只眼，这些患者接受了连续五个月每月一次的玻璃体内注射阿柏西普治疗。每次就诊时，使用酶联免疫吸附测定法（ELISA）测量AH中的sCD14和血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）水平。还评估了HFs的数量、中心黄斑厚度（CMT）以及视网膜内液（IRF）和视网膜下液（SRF）的体积。在第五次注射后一个月，CMT、HFs数量以及IRF和SRF的体积均显著下降。sCD14水平也有所下降。尽管sCD14水平呈下降趋势，但变化无统计学意义。sCD14降低的组在包括视力在内的所有因素上均有改善。相比之下，sCD14升高的组仅CMT有显著下降。当根据最终视力结果将数据分为两组时，最终视力良好的患者在所有就诊时sCD14水平始终较低。本研究强调sCD14作为评估DME患者对阿柏西普治疗反应的潜在生物标志物。
