Intraocular Interleukin-7 Injection Can Be an Effective Strategy for Prevention and Treatment of Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is one of the ocular diseases caused by excessive production of fibrotic tissues in both surfaces of retina and vitreous humour and is considered as the most common cause of failure in retinal reattachment surgery. Such fibrosis may occur as a result of excessive profibrotic molecule production in the body. Ocular level of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and fibronectin has been reported to be elevated in affected eyes by PVR and hence administration of these two molecules could result in ocular fibrosis as well as traction retinal detachments. Some studies have shown the antagonistic function of interleukin-7 (IL-7) on profibrotic effects of TGF-β in human subconjunctival fibroblasts and modulating extracellular matrix (ECM) production. Such excessive production of ECM and subsequent fibrosis has been shown to be responsible for PVR pathology. In this article we hypothesize that IL-7 via its inhibitory effects on pathogenic activity of TGF-β in ECM production could lead to a decrease in collagen production and fibronectin synthesis in retina and vitreous humour; hence its local application as an eye drop or its intraocular administration can be exploited to prevent and treat patients at higher risk of or affected by PVR.