This recent review is from the Brazilian journal Arq. Bras. Oftalmol. 2012 Apr; vol. 75(2) pp. 143-7 For those with a scientific/medical background, the whole of paper can be found at the following link. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=0004-2749&script=sci_issues
The review, written by medics, ophthalmologists and students, describes the main experimental models of autoimmune ocular inflammatory diseases. The hope is that by better understanding the process of autoimmune ocular inflammation in animal models, it will lead to a better understanding of human ocular inflammation.
The paper concludes that the current and new models experimental models being developed may help us to develop new therapies with fewer side effects or new ways of delivering therapies.
Exciting news – there seems to be so much work going on around autoimmune posterior uveitis. For those of you who want a fuller read, we reproduce the conclusion of the review below:
CONCLUSION
“Researches on experimental models have been important to explain the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in different ocular autoimmune inflammatory diseases. EAU is one of the most used animal models. After immunization with uveitogenic antigens, animals develop an immune response mediated primarily by CD4+ T cells. Clinical findings are somewhat similar to some human autoimmune uveitis. Even though these models contribute for a better understanding of the pathophysiology of autoimmune uveitis in humans, there are still many questions to be answered, such as triggers, recurrences, and individual susceptibility. Heterogeneous clinical findings may be related to the observation that each subject may respond to more than one epitope per antigen and respond differently to each one of them, depending on how it is presented and how it is recognized by the immune system.
Lately, new ocular inflammatory experimental models have been available due to the advances in genetics and molecular engineering. These models may help the development of news therapies, with more specific and efficient drugs, avoiding side effects. In addition, animal models are important for the study of new routes of drug delivery, especially by intravitreal injection.