Purpose
Experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) is an animal model of human enodogenous uveitis, and the onset and severity are evaluated clinically and histologically. Histological findings reflect more inflammatory processes, however can not be observed consecutively in the same individuals or tissues. Spectral domain-Optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) is non-invasive and useful for evaluating fundus findings presented in human uveitis. In this study, we examined whether SD-OCT can be utilized for in vivo monitoring of EAU in mice.
Methods
Six- to eight-week old female C57BL/6 mice were immunized subcutaneously with 0.2 ml of emulsion containing 200 µg of hIRBP-p in CFA containing 5 mg/ml Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra. Concurrent with immunization, 1 µg of PTX was injected intraperitoneally. Examinations by funduscopy and SD-OCT (Heidelberg®) were performed on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 after immunization, and the EAU clinical scores were graded on a scale of 0 to 4 according to the previous report. Eyes were then collected and ocular inflammation was assessed histologically.
Results
Retinal lamella structure and inner segment/outer segment (IS/OS) line was observed in the normal mouse retina. After development of EAU, segmental destruction of the inner retinal layers was observed in mice developing EAU at grade 2 level, and destruction of total retinal layers, disappearance of IS/OS line, and partial retinal detachment were presented in EAU mice of grade 3. These SD-OCT findings correlated with the histological observations.
Conclusions
We conclude that OCT is available for evaluating the development of murine EAU and reflects the histopathological changes.
Keywords: 432 autoimmune disease