Immune privilege in the retina

Abstract

As new Ag-specific and non-Ag-specific mechanisms contributing to ocular immune privilege are revealed, the relevance of old paradigms properly comes into question. My lab has a particular interest in the immune privilege of the retina. While the presence of active mechanisms of tolerance, such as immune deviation, is now well-established, we propose that sequestration provides the first line of immune privilege in the retina. When it fails, active, inducible mechanisms provide backup to protect the integrity of the retina and vision. Some of the observations that led to our hypotheses and their supporting experiments are discussed below.