title: [Ocular inflammation with varicella-zoster virus and immune privilege].
abstract: Mice with experimental acute retinal necrosis (ARN) induced by herpes simplex virus fail to acquire virus-specific delayed hypersensitivity (DH), even though they produce antiviral antibodies. We investigated whether there was a similar correlation for patients with varicella zoster virus(VZV)-induced ARN or patients with anterior uveitis caused by VZV. Patients with acute, VZV-induced ARN, with anterior uveitis with dermatitis(herpes zoster ophthalmicus, ZO-AU), or with anterior uveitis without dermatitis(zoster sine herpete, ZSH-AU) were skin-tested with VZV to evaluate DH. All patients with VZV-induced skin disease alone(control group) displayed intense DH when tested with VZV antigen. In contrast, subsets of patients with ARN or ZO-AU displayed absent VZV-specific DH. Patients with the most severe ARN or ZO-AU had the lowest DH responses to VZV antigens. Serum anti-VZV antibody titers were higher in ARN patients than in normal subjects, and anti-viral titer correlated inversely with intensity of anti-VZV DH responses. VZV-specific DH responses were restored in patients who recovered from ARN or from anterior uveitis caused by VZV. Patients with ZSH-AU also failed to display VZV-specific DH. Absence of DH reactivity to VZV antigens appears to be a concomitant feature of VZV-uveitis of high intensity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Tokyo Medical University, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kezuka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D014645:Herpesvirus 3, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D006968:Hypersensitivity, Delayed / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D015882:Retinal Necrosis Syndrome, Acute / Q000276:immunology*; D014606:Uveitis, Anterior / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral