Quantitative Characterization of Autoimmune Uveoretinitis in an Experimental Mouse Model.

To accurately evaluate the autoimmune inflammation, we aim to develop three quantitative measurements to monitor the inflammatory changes in the retina: retinal-choroidal thickness, major retinal vessel diameter, and electroretinography amplitudes. During a 21-day experimental period, eyes were examined by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, optical coherence tomography, fundus fluorescein angiography, and electroretinography in living mice, which were then subsequently killed for histologic assessments. On day 21 postimmunization, inflammation was observed both in vivo and in vitro. Fold change of retinal-choroidal thickness and major retinal vessel diameter in experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis mice were significantly greater than controls (P < 0.001). Both scotopic and photopic electroretinography amplitudes were significantly attenuated when compared with control mice (P < 0.01). Our results showed that these three quantifiable indicators provided an objective and accurate evaluation of autoimmune inflammation, which are in good correlations with the reported clinical and histopathologic scoring systems (P < 0.05). These three indicators will be useful to detect the small but significant differences in the severity of experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis for future longitudinally therapeutic studies.