Ahn Minjun, Dostal John, Hegde Priya, Lee Darren J
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 22;15(1):17745. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-02816-z.
Uveitis is a leading cause of blindness in the world and autoimmune uveitis is an ocular tissue specific autoimmune disease. Utilizing experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU), we can interrogate different immune responses in the mouse that are relevant to the human disease. cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) is an immune checkpoint molecule that has different roles depending on the target tissue. In this work we investigate the role of CTLA-4 on CD4 T cells in ocular tissue during EAU. We find that CTLA-4 is needed for both the severity of disease but also timely resolution of disease. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) that emerge in the spleen during resolution of EAU require CTLA-4 to suppress disease, but ocular Tregs that emerge in the eye do not require CTLA-4 to suppress disease. This report provides an additional understanding of CTLA-4 on Tregs that is specific for ocular tissue. The implications of this work are that circulating Tregs in uveitis patients may require CTLA-4 to suppress ocular inflammation but once in the eye the function of CTLA-4 is dispensable.
葡萄膜炎是全球失明的主要原因之一,自身免疫性葡萄膜炎是一种眼部组织特异性自身免疫性疾病。利用实验性自身免疫性葡萄膜炎(EAU),我们可以研究小鼠体内与人类疾病相关的不同免疫反应。细胞毒性T淋巴细胞抗原4(CTLA-4)是一种免疫检查点分子,其作用因靶组织而异。在这项研究中,我们调查了EAU期间CTLA-4在眼部组织中对CD4 T细胞的作用。我们发现CTLA-4对于疾病的严重程度以及疾病的及时缓解都是必需的。在EAU缓解过程中脾脏中出现的调节性T细胞(Tregs)需要CTLA-4来抑制疾病,但眼睛中出现的眼部Tregs不需要CTLA-4来抑制疾病。本报告提供了对眼部组织特异性Tregs上CTLA-4的进一步理解。这项工作的意义在于,葡萄膜炎患者体内循环的Tregs可能需要CTLA-4来抑制眼部炎症,但一旦进入眼睛,CTLA-4的功能就不再必要。