Abstract
Presentation Description :
Ocular Graft vs. Host Disease is a common complication that occurs in patients that are recipient of a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) for the treatment of many leukemic disorders. Unfortunately, these patients survive their malignancy, but their quality of life is poor secondary to the development of severe ocular surface inflammation, including dry eye. Ocular GVHD is an immunological attack orchestrated by donor T cells which expand in an “abnormal deregulated” immune environment of the recipient. Using a pre-clinical model of ocular GVHD our group has been able to characterize and start to understand the role of donor T cells in this disease. In this presentation we will discuss how immune deregulation at different levels of T cell priming and recruitment are responsible for the development of damage in the ocular compartment.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.