Artículos de revistas
Experimental models of autoimmune inflammatory ocular diseases
Modelos experimentais para o estudo de doenças inflamatórias oculares autoimunes
Fecha
2012Registro en:
Arq. Bras. Oftalmol.,v.75,n.2,p.143-147,2012
0004-2749
10.1590/S0004-27492012000200016
Autor
Gasparin, Fabio
Takahashi, Beatriz Sayuri
Scolari, Mariana Ramos
Gasparin, Filipe
Pedral, Lycia Sampaio
Damico, Francisco Max
Institución
Resumen
Ocular inflammation is one of the leading causes of blindness and loss of vision. Human uveitis is a complex and heterogeneous group of diseases characterized by inflammation of intraocular tissues. The eye may be the only organ involved, or uveitis may be part of a systemic disease. A significant number of cases are of unknown etiology and are labeled idiopathic. Animal models have been developed to the study of the physiopathogenesis of autoimmune uveitis due to the difficulty in obtaining human eye inflamed tissues for experiments. Most of those models are induced by injection of specific photoreceptors proteins (e.g., S-antigen, interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein, rhodopsin, recoverin, phosducin). Non-retinal antigens, including melanin-associated proteins and myelin basic protein, are also good inducers of uveitis in animals. Understanding the basic mechanisms and pathogenesis of autoimmune ocular diseases are essential for the development of new treatment approaches and therapeutic agents. The present review describes the main experimental models of autoimmune ocular inflammatory diseases.