Experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) is induced by immunization of rats and other experimental animals with S-antigen (a soluble antigen from the retina) is being investigated in this laboratory as a model of human intra-ocular inflammation. This experimental inflammation can be transferred from donor rats to naive recipients using lymphocytes harvested from the spleen or lymph nodes. Following harvesting of the cells from the donors and three days in culture with stimulating antigen, the cells are injected into the intra-peritoneal cavity and five to seven days later the recipient rats develop EAU. The disease can also be transferred using a T-helper cell line by intra-peritoneal or intra-ocular injection. The mechanism of transfer of disease is unclear. This work has used radioactively labeled lymphocytes to determine the fate of these lymphocytes after injection into the peritoneal cavity or blood during the process of the development of uveitis. The goal of this project is to understand the initiating mechanisms of inflammation in the hope that these mechanisms can be extended and applied to human inflammations. Cells from an S-Ag specific T cell line migrate into the retina and cause EAU. The kinetics of this migration are being studied. S-antigen specific cells reach the eye in greater numbers if the inflammation in the eye is induced by S-antigen than if it is induced by another mechanism.
