Systemic expression of rat soluble retinal antigen induces resistance to experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis

To assess the role of sequestration in the maintenance of the immune privil ege 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 ass ayed by challenging the S-Ag chimeric animals with S-Ag peptides in CFA and monitoring the time course and severity of experimental autoimmune uveoret initis (EAU). The resulting data showed a correlation between the incidence of S-Ag chimerism and the loss of susceptibility to EAU. The development o f resistance to EAU induction supports the hypothesis that Ag sequestration contributes to retinal immune privilege.