Immune Response and the Eye

A natural tension exists between the need of the eye for immune protection and the requirement that intraocular inflammation be avoided in order to prevent blindness. This tension results in immune responses to eye-derived antigens that are measured, selective, and appropriate, yet devoid of the capacity to promote inflammation or ocular cell death. In this book, the physiologic bases of ocular immune privilege and the distinctive systemic immune responses elicited by eye-derived...
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A natural tension exists between the need of the eye for immune protection and the requirement that intraocular inflammation be avoided in order to prevent blindness. This tension results in immune responses to eye-derived antigens that are measured, selective, and appropriate, yet devoid of the capacity to promote inflammation or ocular cell death. In this book, the physiologic bases of ocular immune privilege and the distinctive systemic immune responses elicited by eye-derived antigens are described. Of course, inflammation does occur within the eye, and several chapters discuss the pathogeneses of these disorders which arise from infections, autoimmunity, and neoplasms. Finally, chapters devoted to corneal and retinal transplantation describe attempts to exploit ocular immune privilege to promote graft survival and thereby cure blindness. Ophthalmologists, both clinicians and physician scientists, general and tumor immunologists, transplantation biologists and anyone seeking to understand the immunopathogenic diseases that threaten vision will appreciate the up-to-date and authoritative information presented in this book.