Interferon alpha 2a in IRPB-derived peptide-induced EAU--part I

Clinically, the IFN-α treated animals exhibited minimal disease, compared to the control group. These findings have been histologically confirmed. Using a variety of monoclonal antibodies, we were not able to demonstrate any differences for panCD44 expression. The similar expression pattern of panCD44 in the retina between control and IFN-α treated mice indicates that this expression may be not influenced by the applied IFN-α dosage. The panCD44 homing receptor may be important for the regulation of EAU induction by CD45+ and CD3+ T-cells. Differences have been observed for CD45+ infiltration between control and IFN-α treated animals. This may be an important hint to characterize their function by markers others than CD8 and CD4 specific antibodies, especially for their T-cell receptor (TCR) expression (α/β versus γ/δ). To identify further differences between IFN-α treated and control mice our analyses will be extended to antigen presenting cells (APC), especially to dendritic cells (DC) capable to regulate the Th1/Th2 balance. Additionally, these analyses will be extended to cell adhesion molecules and/or homing receptor expression kinetics regulated by chemo-and cytokines. EAU induction experiments are presently performed with an increased IFN-α dosage correlating with the surface (m2) of human beings to clarify our results.