[Murine ciliary body pigment epithelial cells inhibit activation of T cells].
OBJECTIVE
Pigment epithelial(PE) cells cultured from the eye possess the novel property of suppressing T cells in vitro. Although cultured iris PE (IPE) and retinal PE (RPE) achieve suppression, the function of ciliary body PE (CBPE) is still unknown. We investigated whether CBPE can suppress the activation of T cells in vitro.


METHODS
CBPE, IPE and RPE cells(controls) were established from normal C57BL/6 mice. T-cell activation was assessed by proliferative response and cytokine production, by ELISA. The expression of candidate genes on ocular PE was evaluated with on oligonucleotide microarray, and PE proliferation and PE morphology were also evaluated.


RESULTS
CBPE significantly suppressed T cell activation in vitro. Cell division of CBPE was much greater than in other PE, and the cells were confluent from on early phase. Microarray analysis showed that the expression of candidate genes in CBPE is similar to the expression in other PE cells.


CONCLUSIONS
CBPE fully suppress T cell activation. Thus, ocular pigment epithelial cells display inhibitory function in the immune privileged site.
Sugita
Sunao
S
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. sunaph@tmd.ac.jp
Futagami
Yuri
Y
Horie
Shintaro
S
Aburatani
Hiroyuki
H
Mochizuki
Manabu
M
D000818:Animals; D002924:Ciliary Body / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010857:Pigment Epithelium of Eye / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*