Abstract: At present, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs have become the first-line treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME), but there are still some patients with poor therapeutic effect. Numerous cytokines are involved in the development of DME and their expression levels change after treatment with anti-VEGF drugs, which may be relevant to the prognosis of DME. Baseline VEGF and monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1 in aqueous humor and intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 and solutable VEGF receptor (sVEGFR)-2 after anti-VEGF treatment may serve as potential biomarkers to evaluate DME treatment. Imaging changes such as central macular thickness, macular volume, hyperreflective foci, subretinal fluid, vessel density and foveal avascular zone could predict and evaluate the therapeutic effect of DME. Therefore, understanding the baseline cytokine, post-treatment cytokine levels, imaging changes and the correlation among them is helpful to guide the personalized treatment of DME patients from different perspectives, explore the pathogenesis of DME and search for potential therapeutic targets for DME. (Int Rev Ophthalmol, 2023, 47: 144-149)

Key words: diabetic macular edema, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor, cytokines