Immune response to intraocular injection of retinal S-antigen in adjuvant

It has been proposed that the introduction of foreign material into the eye at the moment of a penetrating trauma provides an adjuvant effect which, coupled with the release of antigen, might be responsible for sensitizing the immune system to produce a contralateral "sympathetic ophthalmia." We addressed that hypothesis by injecting S-antigen with complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) into the anterior chamber (AC) of the eye of Lewis rats. The injection of an identical dose of antigen (30 micrograms S-Ag in CFA in a total volume of 10 microliters) via the foodpad (FP) or under the conjunctiva (SC) could induce typical experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU). By immunizing via the AC route, we could demonstrate a positive sensitization of the immune system, manifested by serum antibody production against S-Ag and by the presence of S-Ag-specific, responsive T-lymphocytes in the spleen. However, immunization via the AC route did not induce contralateral uveitis, and the animals did not produce a DTH skin response when challenged intradermally with S-Ag as they did after FP immunization. In the light of these results, we evaluated the possibility that a DTH suppressive response was elicited by intracameral (IC) injection as seen in anterior chamber-associated immune deviation (ACAID): we tested the effect of splenectomy and cyclophosphamide pretreatment before IC immunization and the effect of secondary footpad immunization as well as T-helper cell transfer after IC immunization. The results given by these approaches argue against the induction of suppressor cells by IC immunization.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)