The following is a summary of “TNFα and IL-8 vitreous concentrations variations with two antidiabetic therapies in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy: an observational study,” published in the September 2024 issue of Ophthalmology by Morales-Lopez et al.
Antidiabetic therapies are effective in treating diabetes but may also affect the inflammatory response in the eye.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study investigating the inflammatory cytokine profile in the vitreous humor of diabetic retinopathy patients taking antidiabetic medications.
They conducted a comparative study to evaluate the levels of interleukins 1β, 6, 8, 10, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) in the vitreous humor of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and concomitant retinal detachment or vitreous hemorrhage, who were already on antidiabetic treatment with insulin or metformin + glibenclamide. The quantification analysis of each cytokine was performed using the cytometric bead array (CBA) technique. The medians and interquartile ranges were obtained and compared between groups employing the Mann-Whitney U test, with a P-value < 0.05.
The results showed that in 38 samples, TNFα concentrations were higher in the insulin group, and interleukin-8 was lower, while the opposite occurred in the metformin + glibenclamide group. In the stratified analysis, the highest concentrations of interleukin-8 and TNFα occurred in patients with vitreous hemorrhage. Still, a statistical difference existed only in patients with retinal detachment, whose TNFα concentration in the combined therapy group was the lowest (53.50 (33.03–86.66), P=0.03). Interleukins 1β, 6, and 10 were not detected.
Investigators concluded that interleukin-8 and TNFα concentrations were opposite between treatment groups, with more pronounced changes in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy and vitreous hemorrhage, where the highest concentrations of both cytokines were found. However, only TNFα showed a statistical difference.
Source: bmcophthalmol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12886-024-03659-4
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