Multiple etiologies of equine recurrent uveitis--A natural model for human autoimmune uveitis: A brief review

Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) has various etiologies, with Leptospira infection and genetic predisposition being the leading risk factors. Regardless of etiology, expression of ocular proteins associated with maintenance of the blood-ocular barrier is impaired in ERU. The recurring-remitting cycle of ERU repeatedly disrupts the blood-ocular barrier, allowing the previously immune-privileged ocular environment to become the site of a progressive local autoimmune pathology that ultimately results in tissue destruction and vision loss. The immune-mediated process involves humoral and cellular mechanisms. Intraocular antibodies either produced in the eye or that leak through the blood-ocular barrier, are often present at higher levels than in serum and react with antigens in ocular tissue of horses with ERU. Ocular infiltration of auto-aggressive lymphocytes occurs with each uveitis episode and is the most crucial contributor to inflammation and eye damage. Recurring uveitis episodes may be initiated when epitopes of an ocular antigen become visible to the immune system (intramolecular spreading) or another autoantigen (intermolecular spreading), resulting in a new inflammatory reaction.