BackgroundSeveral immunosuppressive therapeutic regimens are widely used to treat Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO), including oral glucocorticoids (OGC), intravenous glucocorticoids (IVGC), retrobulbar injections of glucocorticoids (ROGC) and orbital radiotherapy (OR). The priority among these is unknown. This meta-analysis investigated the efficacy and tolerability of the above regimens.MethodsThe PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases and the Chinese Biomedicine Database were searched up to November 18, 2014. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing monotherapies (OGC, IVGC, ROGC and OR) in patients with moderate-to-severe active GO were selected. The main efficacy measures were the response rate, the standard mean difference (SMD) in the reduction in the clinical activity score (CAS) and the mean difference (MD) in proptosis from baseline to the end of treatment. The main tolerability measure was the risk ratio (RR) for adverse events. The pooled estimates and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated using the RevMan software, version 5.1.ResultsSeven published RCTs involving 328 participants were included in the present meta-analysis, including IVGC versus OGC (3 trials), ROGC versus OGC (3 trials) and OR versus OGC (1 trial). IVGC was more effective than OGC in response rate (RR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.18–1.87) and had an obvious CAS reduction (SMD = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.13–1.25). IVGC caused fewer adverse events than OGC. ROGC and OGC had no statistically significant difference in response rate (RR = 1.16, 95% CI = 0.94–1.42). OR also did not differ significantly compared with OGC (RR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.54–1.60). ROGC and OR had fewer adverse events, such as weight gain, compared with OGC.ConclusionsFor patients with GO in the moderate-to-severe active phase, current evidence gave priority to IVGC, which had a statistically significant advantage over OGC and caused fewer adverse events. ROGC and OR did not provide greater efficacy than OGC, although better tolerability and fewer adverse events were shown.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a diabetes complication that badly affects the patient's eye health. 1 Hyperglycaemia can induce retinal cells' abnormal biological processes. 2 Excessive inflammation and oxidative stress primarily contribute to DR development. 3,4 The retinal cells' apoptosis is also extensively found in DR. 5 So, inhibiting the inflammation, apoptosis and oxidative stress induced by high glucose (HG) may repress the progression of damage.Highly expressed insulin-like growth factor-2 messenger RNA-binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) was identified in

IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) affects multiple organs and is characterized by immune-mediated inflammation and fibrosis; IgG-RD affecting orbital tissue is known as IgG4-related ophthalmic disease (IgG4-ROD). This research is aimed at exploring whether symptom duration and common serologic factors, such as IgG, IgE, and eosinophils, are potential risk factors for IgG4-ROD patient relapse after surgery and identifying possible causes of the positive correlation between symptom duration and relapse. This retrospective cohort study included 40 IgG4-ROD patients after surgery. Auxiliary inspection results were obtained before surgery and during follow-up, and relapse risk factors were identified based on previous studies. We used the Spearman rank correlation test to reveal the relationship between symptom duration and relapse time and identified the optimal cutoff value for symptom duration by X-tile. Then, we divided the patients into the long-duration and short-duration groups. Kaplan–Meier survival analyses and log-rank tests were performed to identify the relationship between symptom duration and relapse using X-tile software. Finally, we studied the relationship between previously studied relapse risk factors and symptom duration. The survival curves of the long-duration and short-duration groups were obviously different, and the baseline serum IgG, IgE, and eosinophil levels and asthma concomitant rate were significantly different between the long-duration and short-duration groups. Furthermore, the baseline serum IgG ( r = 0.485 , P = 0.002 ), IgE ( r = 0.350 , P = 0.037 ), and eosinophil ( r = 0.6535 , P < 0.0001 ) levels were positively correlated with symptom duration. Our study shows that IgG4-ROD symptom duration is significantly positively correlated with relapse rate and negatively correlated with relapse time. Symptom duration was positively correlated with serum baseline IgG4, IgE, and eosinophil levels and asthma history, which were potential risk factors for disease relapse. We recommended that IgG4-ROD patients with symptom durations greater than 96 months continue to receive maintenance steroid therapy longer than 1 year postsurgery to reduce the relapse rate.

Recently, the potential role of tRNA-related fragments (tRFs) in ophthalmic diseases has been extensively researched. However, systematic studies on the potential regulatory effects of tRFs in thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) are lacking. We used high-throughput sequencing techniques to measure expression levels of mRNAs and tRFs in patients with TAO, and the results were verified by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR). Next, the potential biological regulatory effect of differentially expressed tRFs was analyzed, and potential downstream target RNAs of differentially expressed tRFs were predicted to explore the potential role of tRFs as therapeutic targets and biomarkers of TAO. A total of 50 tRFs and 361 mRNAs were dysregulated in the TAO group, and tRF5-GluCTC, PMAIP1, HSD17B2 and ATF3 were verified to be significantly differentially expressed in TAO. Our research reveals that several associated pathways likely play a role in the pathogenesis of TAO. By targeting ATF3, HSD17B2 and PMAIP1, tRF5-GluCTC may play a potential role in regulating the orbital fibroblast adipogenic response and fibrotic hyperplasia in patients with TAO.