Our previous study has confirmed that senescent fibroblasts promote corneal neovascularization (CNV) partially via the enhanced secretion of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs). However， the regulation of MMPs expression in senescent fibroblasts remained unclear. In this study， we identified that the expression and secretion levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) were significantly up-regulated in senescent human corneal fibroblasts than that in normal fibroblasts. Moreover， compared with vehicle-pretreated senescent fibroblasts， IL-1β pretreatment enhanced the expression of angiogenic factors， while reduced the expression of angiostatic factors in senescent fibroblasts. When co-cultured with human umbilical vein endothelial cells， IL-1β-pretreated senescent fibroblasts more strongly promoted their proliferation， migration， and tube-formation capacities than the vehicle-controlled senescent fibroblasts. In addition， either interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) or anti-IL-1β neutralization completely inhibited the promotion of senescent fibroblasts in vascular tube formation in vitro and CNV in vivo. Therefore， we concluded that autocrine IL-1β mediated the promotion of senescent fibroblasts on corneal neovascularization.