Expression of Cytokines, Chmokines and Growth Factors in Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery with Femtosecond Laser Pretreatment

PURPOSE To describe cytokines, chemokines and growth factors profiles in patients undergoing cataract surgery with femtosecond laser pretreatment and investigate their relationships with the postoperative in vivo inflammation index. METHODS Aqueous humor was collected from 22 eyes after femtosecond laser pretreatment and from 22 eyes at the beginning of routine cataract surgery. The levels of 45 inflammation-related mediators were measured using multiplex fluorescent bead-based immunoassays. Laser flare photometry was measured preoperatively and at 1 day, 7 days and 30 days postoperatively. RESULTS Compared with the control group, the femtosecond laser treatment group showed significantly higher aqueous humor levels of fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, leukemia inhibitor factor (LIF), interleukin (IL)-1ra and IL-18, and significantly lower aqueous humor levels of IL-9, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB, eotaxin and TNF-β. Postoperative aqueous flare was significantly greater in the manual cataract surgery group at 1 day (p<0.001), 7 days (p<0.001) and 30 days (p = 0.002).No correlation was found between the analyzed mediators and the aqueous flare values. CONCLUSIONS The expression profiles of cytokines, chemokines and growth factors and the correlations of these profiles with the in vivo inflammatory indexes for patients undergoing cataract surgery with femtosecond laser pretreatment were identified. Our data indicate a disturbance of postoperative inflammation response after femtosecond laser treatment.