Turkish Abstract Abstract Article PDF Similar Articles

Gazi Üniv. Tıp Fak. Göz Hast AD. Proliferative diabetic retinopathy which is an important complication of diabetic retinopathy, is characterized by fibrovascular membranes. Interleukin 8 (IL-8) is known to have chemotactic effect on neutrophiles, lymphocytes and retinal pigment epithelial cells and also a role in ocular inflammations and proliferative eye diseases. In this study, the role of IL8 on proliferative diabetic retinopathy was investigated. In 3 out of 9 patients, levels of IL-8 in the vitreous were found to be elevated. IL-8 level was not high in any of the blood samples (p<0.01). Vitreous samples from cadaver eyes, taken as the control group, did not show high IL-8 levels (p<0.01). According to these results, we suppose that IL-8 has a role in the pathogenesis of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Keywords : Angiogenesis, Chemotaxis, Interleukin-8, Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy