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 af ter intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in rabbits and discusses the e ffect of IL-1 on postoperative anterior ocular inflammation. Twenty-se ven pigmented rabbits were divided into three groups: in the first gro up, the IOL were placed in the capsular bag after lens extraction; in the second, the lenses of rabbits were removed without IOL implantatio n, and the third served as the control group without surgical interven tion. On the Ist, 3rd, 7th and 13th postoperative days, aqueous humor samples were obtained. MTT colorimetry was employed to detect the pres ence of IL-1. The data were closely studied by means of analysis of va riance 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-le ns-extracted group. The result suggests that there is a physical relat ion 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 mecha nical factors related to the presence of the IOL itself.