Dysregulation of the immune system causes a series of insults to the blood-ocular barrier, leading to breakdown of the barrier and release of inflammatory mediators Inflammatory insults (e.g., autoimmune diseases) can disrupt the blood-retinal barrier Yang et al. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24: 4676. Metcalfe et al. Front. Immunol. 2020, 11: 1424. Shaik et al. Biomolecules. 2020, 10: 1673. Valle et al. Exp Eye Res. 2019, 178: 27. Mesquida et al. Trans Vis Sci Tech. 2019, 8: 32. Blood-retinal barrier breakdown allows immune cells and blood plasma into the retina, causing inflammation, leakage and macular edema IL-6 and VEGF are co-induced: IL-6 sustains inflammation and upregulates VEGF, which promotes vascular leak and neovascularization. Together, IL-6 and VEGF compound damage to the blood-retinal barrier 1 2 3 Blood-retinal barrier breakdown Normal