Objective  Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of visual dysfunction worldwide. Recently, a growing body of evidence confirmed that inflammation, immune system and autophagy play a key role in the pathogenesis and progression of the disease. In this study, we determined the Th cell-associated immune responses by measuring the cytokine expression of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in AMD patients
Methods Twenty wet AMD patients, 15 dry AMD patients, 21 polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) patient and a gender- and age-matched group of 20 healthy individuals were selected in this study. The Th-cell cytokine profiles including levels of interferon (IFN)-gamma, interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-17A in cultures of PBMC were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results  The IL-17Alevels in PBMC cultures were higher in the wet AMD and PCV patients than that in healthy controls (p<0.0001), there is no significant difference between the IL-17Alevels in dry AMD patients and healthy controls. The IFN-gamma levels in phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated cultures were lower in the wet AMD patients than that in healthy controls (p<0.0001), while in dry AMD and PCV patients, the IFN-gamma levels were higher than that in healthy controls (p<0.05). Among all the groups of patients and healthy controls, the IL-4 levels have no significant difference.
Conclusions These findings suggest that Th1/17 cells may involved in the pathogenesis of AMD.