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The Role of IFN-alpha in Experimental and Clinical Uveitis
Xiaoli Liu1, Maria Diedrichs-Möhring1, Gerhild Wildner1
1a Section of Immunobiology, Department of Ophthalmology , Klinikum der Universität München , Munich , Germany.
Purpose:
IFN-α is the only treatment capable of inducing long-term remission in some patients with ocular Behçet's disease. In this review, we focus on immune mechanisms of IFN-α in animal models and patients and compare the outcome of different clinical studies.
Methods:
Review of literature using PubMed and Google and original data from rat models with monophasic/chronic or relapsing experimental autoimmune uveitis treated with IFN-α.
Results:
The role of IFN-α and its effect on various cell types were investigated, in some cases with contradictory results. Some patients respond very well to IFN-α treatment, while others are non-responders, which was reflected in the uveitis rat models: relapsing uveitis was ameliorated, the monophasic/chronic disease even aggravated.
Conclusions:
Despite intensive investigations in patients and animal models, the immune mechanisms explaining the therapeutic effect of IFN-α in ocular Behçet's disease are not yet fully understood and need further investigation.