Depletion of Retinal Dopaminergic Activity in a Mouse Model of Rod Dysfunction Exacerbates Experimental Autoimmune Uveoretinitis: A Role for the Gateway Reflex.

The gateway reflex is a mechanism by which neural inputs regulate chemokine expression at endothelial cell barriers, thereby establishing gateways for the invasion of autoreactive T cells into barrier-protected tissues. In this study, we hypothesized that rod photoreceptor dysfunction causes remodeling of retinal neural activity, which influences the blood-retinal barrier and the development of retinal inflammation. We evaluated this hypothesis using mice, a model of night blindness with late-onset rod-cone dystrophy, and experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU).