Human sympathetic ophthalmia. Immunologic analysis of the vitreous and uvea.

The inflammatory cell reaction within the vitreous and uvea of a human eye with atypical sympathetic ophthalmia was studied immunohistologically and with the fluorescence-activated cell sorter. The uveal infiltrate consisted predominantly of T cells of the helper/inducer subset, with less than 5% of the cells characterized as B cells, plasma cells, or monocytes. These results suggest that T cells perform an important role in atypical human sympathetic ophthalmia. A similar population of mononuclear cells was observed in the vitreous inflammatory infiltrate, in marked contrast to the peripheral blood, where there was a significant depression of circulating T cells. The similarity between the inflammatory cell populations within the vitreous cavity and uvea, in contrast to the peripheral blood, underlines the importance of studying the intraocular inflammatory reaction in uveitis to gain further insight into the mechanism of this disease.