Abstract
To assess the role of sequestration in the maintenance of the immune privilege of the retina, retrovirally mediated gene transfer was used to express a defined, specific retinal autoantigen, rat soluble retinal Ag (S- Ag), in a systemic, nonsequestered manner. In this study we report the stable, long term transduction of rat retinal S-Ag into PBMC. Tolerance to S- Ag was assayed by challenging the S-Ag chimeric animals with S-Ag peptides in CFA and monitoring the time course and severity of experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU). The resulting data showed a correlation between the incidence of S-Ag chimerism and the loss of susceptibility to EAU. The development of resistance to EAU induction supports the hypothesis that Ag sequestration contributes to retinal immune privilege.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 4269-4276 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Immunology |
Volume | 163 |
Issue number | 8 |
State | Published - 1999 |