Long-lived autoreactive memory CD4+ T cells mediate the sustained retinopathy in chronic autoimmune uveitis

Abstract

Chronic uveitis comprises heterogeneous clinical entities characterized by sustained and recurrent intraocular inflammation that is believed to be driven by autoimmune responses. The management of chronic uveitis is challenging with the limited availability of efficacious treatments, and the underlying mechanisms mediating disease chronicity remain poorly understood as the majority of experimental data are derived from the acute phase of the disease (the first 2-3 weeks post-induction). Herein, we investigated the key cellular mechanisms underlying chronic intraocular inflammation using our recently established murine model of chronic autoimmune uveitis. We demonstrate unique long-lived CD44^hi IL-7R⁺ IL-15R⁺ CD4⁺ memory T cells in both retina and secondary lymphoid organs after 3 months postinduction of autoimmune uveitis. These memory T cells functionally exhibit antigen-specific proliferation and activation in response to retinal peptide stimulation in vitro. Critically, these effector-memory T cells are capable of effectively trafficking to the retina and accumulating in the local tissues secreting both IL-17 and IFN-γ upon adoptively transferred, leading to retinal structural and functional damage. Thus, our data reveal the critical uveitogenic functions of memory CD4⁺ T cells in sustaining chronic intraocular inflammation, suggesting that memory T cells can be a novel and promising therapeutic target for treating chronic uveitis in future translational studies.

Keywords: T cells; chronic autoimmune uveitis; immunological memory; retinal inflammation.