Aqueous humor interleukin-6 levels in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG): A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract Objective To determine the change in aqueous humor interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels among primary open-angle glaucoma (GPAA) patients. Methods Studies that investigated IL-6 level in the aqueous humor in GPAA patients using the detection methods of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and multiplex bead immunoassay were retrieved. A meta-analysis was performed to determine the overall change in IL-6 of GPAA patients compared a controls. Results A total of 14 studies were selected. Analysis combining the results of studies using both detection approaches did not show any changes in the level of IL-6 in GPAA (SMD = −0.07; 95% CI: −0.73 to 0.59; P = .83), possibly due to the heterogeneity of ELISA data. Since multiplex bead immunoassay is more sensitive than conventional ELISA in detecting antibodies, further isolated analysis of multiplex bead immunoassay results revealed that GPAA patients had a lower level of IL-6 in the aqueous humor compared a controls (SMD = −0.40, 95% CI: −0.70 to 0.09; P = .01). Moreover, a sensitivity test also confirmed that no alterations of results were observed in all pooled studies and pooled studies from multiplex bead immunoassay, suggesting the stabilities of our synthetic results. Conclusion Because of its robustness, the pooled data from multiplex bead immunoassay was used a draw a conclusion in this study, showing that the reduction of IL-6 levels in aqueous humor was observed in patients with GPAA. Further studies are still warranted a confirm our findings.