The diagnosis of endophthalmitis was made on the basis of clinical features including pain, decreased visual acuity (VA), diffuse bulbar conjunctival hyperaemia, chemosis, inflammation of the anterior segment and posterior segment inflammation (all patients had vitreous infiltration diagnosed by biomicroscopy or ophthalmic ultrasound).

Controls were patients who underwent cataract surgery.

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Cytokines and chemokines levels in Aqueous humor (AqH) are measured with the Bio-Plex® Multiplex System human Cytokine 27-Plex Panel assay (Bio-Rad, Marne-la-Coquette, France).

The immune mediators were classified in five categories: (a) proinflammatory mediators: (IL-6 and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP-1), (b) type 1 cytokines: IL-2, IL-12(p70), Interferon (IFN-γ), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), (c) type 2 cytokines: IL-4, IL-10 and IL-13, (d) T-regulatory cytokine: IL-10 and (e) Th-17 cytokine: IL-17. The cytokine and chemokine assay plate layout consisted of a standard series in duplicate (1 to 32 000 pg/ml), four blank wells and 20 μl duplicates of pooled AqH samples, diluted to 50 μl with BioPlex mouse serum diluent. The BioPlex® method was performed as recommended by the manufacturer and previously published studies. Data were analyzed with Bio-Plex Manager software® V 1.1 (Bio-Rad).

E Snellen Conversion in LogMAR unit