Purpose: Ocular toxocariasis (OT) is a vision-threatening disease with a largely unknown intraocular pathogenesis. Herein, we determined the cytokine expression profile in aqueous humor (AH) of patients with OT.Methods: This is a prospective experimental case-control study of cytokine levels in AH of patients with OT and uveitis and control subjects. Thirty samples from eyes with OT, 23 from eyes with uveitis, and 25 from eyes with age-related cataract were analyzed using a multiplexed magnetic bead immunoassay. Thirty-one cytokines were detected and classified into 5 categories: T-helper type 1 (Th1)-associated cytokines, Th2-associated cytokines, Th17 cytokine, proinflammatory mediators, and growth factors.Results: Higher expression in 19 and decreased expression in 3 cytokines in the OT group were identified, compared with controls. Levels of 17 cytokines were increased in the OT group, compared with the non-OT uveitis and control groups. Levels of 3 cytokines were decreased in the OT group compared with controls; no cytokine level was decreased in the OT and non-OT uveitis groups. Interleukin-10 was the only cytokine showing a significant difference in pairwise comparison among all groups. Th17 levels showed no change, while growth factors and proinflammatory mediators showed some significant changes.Conclusions: We believe this is the first analysis of cytokine expression profile in OT. It revealed that Th2-associated cytokines, especially IL-5, IL-10 and IL-13, present a significantly higher concentration in OT compared with the non-OT uveitis and controls. These cytokines may be important for OT pathogenesis and help identify diagnostic markers and develop treatment strategies in future.

PurposeOcular toxocariasis (OT) is a vision-threatening disease with a largely unknown intraocular pathogenesis. Herein, we determined the cytokine expression profile in aqueous humor (AH) of patients with OT.MethodsThis is a retrospective case-control study of cytokine levels in AH of patients with OT and uveitis and control subjects. Thirty samples from eyes with OT, 23 from eyes with non-OT uveitis, and 25 from eyes with age-related cataract were analyzed using a multiplexed magnetic bead immunoassay. Thirty-one cytokines were detected and classified into 5 categories: T-helper type 1 (Th1) -associated cytokines, Th2-associated cytokines, Th17 cytokine, proinflammatory mediators, and growth factors.ResultsIn the 31 cytokines, 9 cytokines were undetectable, including IL-1a, IL-1b, IL-2, IL-3, IL-12p70, IL-17A, TGF-a, TNF-β, and IFN-g. From the 22 cytokines, 13 exhibited significantly increased expression in the OT group than in the control group, including TNF-a, IFN-a2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-9, IL-10, IL-13, sCD40L, PDGF-AA, PDGF-AB/BB, FLT3l, and EGF. There were 5 cytokines exhibited significantly increased expression in the OT group than in non-OT group, including IL-5, IL-9, IL-10, IL-13, and PDGF-AA. There was no significantly decreased expression in any cytokines in the OT group when compared with control or non-OT groups. To the 5 cytokines that showed significant difference in OT group alone, IL-10 and IL-13 exhibited more than 13-fold increase, and IL-5 showed the most obvious as 27-fold increase in OT patients, when compared with that in control group.ConclusionThe cytokine profile expression in aqueous humor from patients with ocular toxocariasis was investigated, and our findings suggest that Th1 and Th17 cytokine responses are not enhanced, whereas the cytokine status was polarized toward a Th2 response. Our findings also suggest the involvement of IL-5, IL-10, and IL-13 in the immunopathogenesis of ocular toxocariasis.