Correlation of transforming growth factor β-1 vitreous levels with clinical severity of proliferative vitreoretinopathy in patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment

Abstract

Abstract Objective To correlate the vitreous concentration of transforming growth factor β-1 (TGF β-1) with the degree of clinical severity of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). Design A prospective, observational, cross-sectional study carried out on cases and controls. Participants The study included 40 patients with a diagnosis of PVR secondary to rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. Methods Vitreous was obtained in patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy by rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, who were treated during the period from August 2015 to June 2016, in a national reference centre for ophthalmological care in Mexico City, Mexico. The levels of TGFβ-1 were quantified by ELISA technique. An ANOVA test was performed for the comparison of the different groups, together with a post hoc Dunns test. A statistically significant difference was considered when obtaining p Results The levels of TGFβ-1 were quantified, and the following means were found for each group: In the group with PVR grade A, 1150.6 ± 452.08 pg/ml, PVR grade B: 1129.6 ± 365.54 pg/ml, and PVR grade C: 1146.4 ± 330.21 pg/ml. The statistical analysis did not find significant differences when comparing the different PVR groups (p = 0.53). However, when performing the differential analysis for each level of severity, a statistically significant increase in the expression of TGFβ-1 was observed in the group of patients with PVR-A at a greater number of days of evolution of the detachment (p = 0.03). There were no statistically significant differences for PVR-B and PVR-C (p = 0.16 and p = 0.16, respectively). Conclusion Although the levels of TGFβ-1 are not directly related to the clinical severity grade, suggesting that there must be other factors involved in the advanced stages of PVR, TGFβ-1 may have greater relevance during the initial stages of the clinical course by promoting the epithelial–mesenchymal transition due to its greater expression in PVR-A. Thus, it can be concluded that each isoform plays a very particular role in the complex process of PVR.