Retinal antigen-specific T cells mediate experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) in PVG rat a model for tracking antigen-specific CD4+T cells in the inflamed eye

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Abstract
Experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) is a CD4+ T cell mediated organ-specific model of autoimmune disease and is considered a good model of posterior uveitis in man. Previously it has been shown that EAU may be induced in Lewis rats by adoptive transfer of small numbers of retinal antigen-specific CD4+ T cell lines where recruitment of naive T cells is integral to the pathogenesis of uveitis. In order to assess the role of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells in EAU, a model of passively induced EAU has been developed in which retinal extract-specific T cell lines were generated from lymph nodes of immunised PVG-RT7b rats and maintained with alternating cycles of stimulation with retinal extract presented on syngeneic accessory cells and proliferation in IL-2 rich media. The antigen-specific cell line can be categorised phenotypically by the CD4+ IL-2R+ OX42-OX8- cell surface expression. All cells expressed on their cell surface RT7.2 allotype of CD45 antigen specific for PVG-RT7b strain, so that when EAU was induced by adoptive transfer with as little as 5X106 cells to PVG-RT7a recipients, antigen-specific cells of donor allotype (CD4+ RT7.2+) may be tracked in the recipient (RT7.1+ allotype). This preliminary report describes the isolation of antigen-specific (donor) T cells from the retina in early stages of passively-induced EAU, a model which can now be adopted to investigate the role different populations of cells play in the pathogenesis of EAU.

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