Immunological and Molecular Biological Research on Local Defense System of the Eye

该研究旨在研究眼睛的局部防御系统。在白内障手术期间从年龄相关性白内障患者的前房获得的房水（AH）被发现抑制由葡萄膜炎患者的眼浸润细胞建立的T细胞克隆的细胞因子产生。通过FPLC柱层析，从AH中鉴定出4个具有抑制活性的分子。其中一个分子的分子量与可溶性Fas配体（sFasL）相似。年龄相关性白内障患者的AH中检测到大量的sFasL，表明正常人的AH中存在sFasL。在实验性葡萄膜炎模型中，发现葡萄膜炎活动性与凋亡细胞或FasL阳性细胞的数量之间存在显著相关性。这些结果表明，sFasL和其他免疫抑制分子在AH中具有调节眼内炎症的重要作用。进一步的研究，以检查是否sFasL诱导抑制细胞因子的产生或T细胞克隆的细胞凋亡建立的葡萄膜炎患者的眼部浸润细胞，现在正在我们的实验室进行。

The research was aimed at investigating the local defense system of the eye. The aqueous humor (AH) obtained from the anterior chamber of patients with age-related cataract during cataract surgery was found to suppress the cytokine production by T cell clones established from ocular infiltrating cells of patients with uveitis. Four molecules having the suppressive activities were identified from the AH by FPLC column chromatography. One of the four molecules had similar molecular weight as soluble Fas ligand (sFasL). A significant amount of sFasL was detected in the AH of age-related cataract patients, indicating the presence of sFasL in the AH of human eye at normal condition. In experimental model of uveitis, a significant correlation was found between the uveitis activity and the number of apoptotic cells or FasL-positive cells. These results suggest that sFasL and other immunosuppressive molecules in AH have a significant role to regulate intraocular inflammation. Further studies to examine if sFasL induces suppression of cytokine production or apoptosis of T cell clones established ocular infiltrating cells of uveitis patients are now ongoing at our laboratory.