ABNORMAL NAIVE AND MEMORY T-LYMPHOCYTE SUBSETS IN THE PERIPHERAL-BLOOD OF PATIENTS WITH UVEITIS

Purpose. To better define the role of lymphocytes in the pathogenesis of uveitis, we studied the expression of memory and naive cell markers on T lymphocytes from peripheral blood. Methods. Surface antigens on T lymphocytes obtained from peripheral blood of 27 patients with uveit is, including 12 patients with Behcet's disease (BD), 7 patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (VKH), and 8 patients with idiopathic uve itis (IU), were detected by three-color flow cytometric analysis. Lymp hocytes from 14 age-matched healthy control subjects were similarly ev aluated. Results. The percentage of T lymphocytes that were CD4(+)CD29 (+) lymphocytes (memory cells) was high in all patients with uveitis, while that of CD4(+)CD45RA(+) lymphocytes (naive cells) was lower in p atients with ED and VKH, although the difference was not statistically significant. The percentage of CD29(+) cells within CD3(+)CD4(+) cell population was significantly higher in patients with ED and VKH than in the controls (p < 0.01), and the percentage of CD45RA(+) cells was significantly lower in ED patients than in controls (p < 0.01). The T lymphocyte subsets in patients with IU were similar to the controls. C onclusions. These results show an abnormal distribution of T lymphocyt es in patients with uveitis associated with an underlying systemic dis ease.