Melanocortin 5 receptor and ocular immunity

The nervous system contributes to the mechanisms of ocular immune privilege by the constitutive presence of the immunosuppressive neuropeptide alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) in the eye. Alpha-MSH through the melanocortin 5 receptor (MC5r) mediates induction of CD4+ regulatory T cells that suppress in an antigen specific manner autoimmune disease. We investigated whether there was a role for MC5r expression in ocular immunity and the natural induction of regulatory T cells that emerged following resolution of experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU). Unlike wild type mice, EAU in MC5r-/- mice caused severe retinal damage, did mice expressed a not induce the emergence of ocular autoantigen regulatory immunity in the spleen, and the MC5r-/- classical memory immune response when reimmunized with ocular autoantigen. There was expression of MC5r in retinal pigment epithelial cells, in the ganglion cell and neural outer plexiform layers of healthy wild type mice retinas. The recovery of the ocular microenvironment from EAU was not dependent on the expression of MC5r, nor was the recovery dependent on the induction of CD4+ regulatory T cells (Treg cells) in the spleen. However, protection of the retina from the inflammatory damage of EAU and the induction of ocular autoantigen-responsive CD4+ Treg cells in the post EAU spleen requires expression of MC5r.