An experimental study of the interleukin 1 levels in aqueous humor after intraocular lens implantation

This paper studies the interleukin 1 (IL-1) levels in aqueous humor after intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in rabbits and discusses the effect of IL-1 on postoperative anterior ocular inflammation. Twenty-seven pigmented rabbits were divided into three groups: in the first group, the IOL were placed in the capsular bag after lens extraction; in the second, the lenses of rabbits were removed without IOL implantation, and the third served as the control group without surgical intervention. On the Ist, 3rd, 7th and 13th postoperative days, aqueous humor samples were obtained. MTT colorimetry was employed to detect the presence of IL-1. The data were closely studied by means of analysis of variance with SAS software. The IL-1 level in aqueous humor reached its maximum on the 14th postoperative day in the IOL-implanted group, and the IL-1 levels in aqueous humor were significantly higher (p<0.05) on the ist, 3rd, 7th and 14th days postoperatively in the IOL-implanted group than in the non-surgical-intervention group and extracapsular-lens-extracted group. The result suggests that there is a physical relation to the IOL itself, a relation that induces the secretion of IL-1. The result, however, is also likely to have merely come from the mechanical factors related to the presence of the IOL itself.