Immune response to immunization via the anterior chamber of the eye. II. An analysis of F1 lymphocyte-induced immune deviation.

Exposure to alloantigen via the anterior chamber of the eye elicits a transient suppression of cellular immunity, whereas humoral immunity is preserved--i.e. F1 LI-ID. The majority of lymphoid cells inoculated into the anterior chamber are retained within the posterior segment of the eye. The latter serves as a depot of alloantigen, allowing the chronic egress of small numbers of cells into the vascular tree. The persistence of this antigen depot is essential to the development of F1 LI-ID. Since there is a preferential distribution of cells that migrate from the eye to the spleen, the functional integrity of the latter is also necessary to elicit F1 LI-ID. It is concluded that an anatomically intact spleen, i.v. presentation of antigen, and persistence of antigen within the eye are all important to the elicitation of this phenomenon.