葡萄膜炎是常见的致盲和引起视觉缺陷的眼科疾病，多由自身免疫反应所诱发。我们在实验性自身免疫性葡萄膜炎（EAU）的研究中发现，阻断ATP/P2X7受体信号通路可减弱树突状细胞（DCs）对Th17细胞的激活作用，防治EAU。但矛盾的是，于免疫后早期或晚期分别给予P2X7受体拮抗剂，会对EAU病情产生减弱或增强两种截然相反的结果。预实验结果提示，免疫细胞上P2X7受体的表达存在明显的时相性。免疫反应早期P2X7受体主要表达于DCs发挥促炎作用，此后则是CD4+T细胞取代DCs成为P2X7受体的高表达细胞，发挥与DCs功能相反的抑制炎症作用。本课题拟阐明在EAU免疫进程中，不同免疫细胞是否通过ATP/P2X7受体通路发挥不同的作用；哪些因素会影响P2X7受体的表达；针对P2X7受体表达的不同，采用不同的治疗方案是否对EAU的疗效更佳。为临床自身免疫性葡萄膜炎的治疗提供新的思路和理论依据。

Uveitis is a common cause of human visual disability and blindness, mostly induced by the autoimmune response. In the study of experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU), we found that blocking the ATP/P2X7 receptor pathway can attenuate the role of dendritic cells (DCs) in activating Th17 cells, thus preventing and treating EAU. But the contradiction is that injection of mice with P2X7 receptor antagonists at an early stage after immunization had an inhibitory effect on EAU development, whereas injection of the same amount of P2X7 receptor antagonists at a late stage had an enhancing effect on EAU development. The results of pre-experiments suggest that expression of P2X7 receptor on immune cells had time phase property. Early immune response P2X7 receptors expression mainly in DCs play a proinflammatory role, after that is the CD4+T cells replace DCs as the high expression of P2X7 receptors, and play a role of inhibiting inflammation. This study is to clarify whether different immune cells play different roles through the ATP/P2X7 receptors pathway during the immune process; What factors affect the expression of P2X7 receptors; Whether adopting different treatment for different P2X7 receptors expression has a better effect on EAU. These studies will provide new ideas and theoretical evidences for the clinical treatment of autoimmune uveitis.