Human retinal S-antigen: T cell epitope mapping in posterior uveitis patients.
Uveitis, an intraocular inflammatory disease which affects the uveal tract and the retina of the eye in humans, is one of the major causes of visual impairment. Posterior uveitis is often associated with inflammation of the retina and vitreous. Unfortunately, etiological diagnosis of the disease is not possible in the majority of patients. It is generally felt that an autoimmune mechanism may be involved in so-called idiopathic cases. The role of retinal S-antigen, its 20 linear peptides spanning the entire sequence, and 2 additional peptides, known to be uveitopathogenic in experimental animals, was studied in 26 patients with uveitis. Lymphocyte proliferative response was tested in vitro to identify the epitopes of S-antigen involved and to establish their role in the pathogenesis of uveitis. Of 26 uveitis patients tested, 11 showed a significant T cell proliferative response in vitro to at least 1 antigen used. None among the controls showed any response to the peptides or native S-antigen used in this study. We have found that uveitis patients respond most frequently to peptide 4 (61--80), peptide 5 (81--100), peptide 8 (141--160), peptide 9 (161--180), peptide 12 (221--240), and peptide 13 (241--260) of the human S-antigen. These results further confirm that autoimmunity to retinal S-antigen may play a role in the etiopathogenesis of a subset of patients with idiopathic uveitis.
Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, Department of Immunology, Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow 226 014, India.
G
G
Rai
S
S
Saxena
H
H
Kumar
V K
VK
Singh
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019393:Arrestin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D018604:Epitope Mapping; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014605:Uveitis / Q000276:immunology*
D019393:Arrestin; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte