EXPERIMENTAL AUTOIMMUNE UVEORETINITIS INDUCED BY THE GAMMA-SUBUNIT OFCYCLIC GUANOSINE-MONOPHOSPHATE PHOSPHODIESTERASE IN RATS

Purpose. To investigate the capacity of the recombinant gamma-subunit (P gamma) of cyclic guanosine monophosphate phosphodiesterase to induc e experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis in Lewis rats. Methods. Bovine P gamma was expressed in Escherichia coli cells and purified by fast protein liquid chromatography. Lewis rats were immunized by a single f ootpad injection of P gamma emulsified in complete Freund's adjuvant. Clinical and histopathologic changes in the eye and pineal gland were examined. Lymphocytes were prepared from the lymph nodes of rats with uveitis and transferred by intraperitoneal injection to naive recipien t rats. Results. Immunization of rats with P gamma induced panuveitis and pinealitis with clinical and histopathologic changes similar to th ose induced by S-antigen. Lymphocytes from the lymph nodes of diseased rats transferred uveitis to naive recipients. Conclusions. P gamma, a retina-specific protein of molecular weight less than 10,000 kDa, is capable of inducing uveoretinitis in Lewis rats. The disease can be tr ansferred adoptively to naive rats by injection of lymphocytes from do nor rats with experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis. Inflammation of t he pineal gland of immunized rats suggests that P gamma is not only lo calized to the retina but also to the pineal gland.