ORAL TOLERANCE IN A MURINE MODEL OF RELAPSING EXPERIMENTAL AUTOIMMUNEUVEORETINITIS (EAU) - INDUCTION OF PROTECTIVE TOLERANCE IN PRIMED ANIMALS

Oral administration of uveitogenic retinal antigens suppresses the exp ression of EAU induced by a subsequent immunization with these antigen s. Effectiveness and mechanisms of oral tolerance in EAU have mainly b een studied in the acute, monophasic model in Lewis rats by feeding an tigen prior to induction of disease. In this study we investigated the effect of oral tolerance induction in the acute as well as the chroni c-relapsing models in the B10.A mouse. In acute murine EAU we could ef fectively suppress disease by induction of oral tolerance prior to imm unization. In the chronic-relapsing EAU, antigen feeding was started o nly after the animals had recovered from their first attack of uveitis . Under these experimental conditions the subsequent relapse was large ly prevented. These experiments demonstrate that oral tolerance may ha ve practical clinical implications in uveitis, which is predominantly a chronic-relapsing condition in humans.