Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome—isolation of cloned T cells with specificity for melanocytes and melanoma cells

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Abstract
The pathogenesis of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome is poorly understood. A unifying mechanism for its diverse clinical manifestations affecting central nervous system, eye, integument and auditory system has not been found, although many authors have suggested that the features of the disease are the result of autoimmune responses. We performed immunological studies on two patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome. In one case antibodies to melanoma cells in cytotoxic assay were detected, which it was thought may indicate the presence of antibodies to melanocytes. In the second patient three clones of interleukin-2-dependent T cells were isolated which appeared to have specificity in both cytotoxic and proliferative assays to cultured normal melanocytes and to three allogeneic melanoma cells. These findings further support a role for autoimmunity to pigmented cells in the pathogenesis of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome. However, the precise role of autoimmunity in this disease is yet to be established.