Immune system compartments

Infection with HIV affects every compartment of the immune system and results in a progressive decrease in the body s ability to eliminate other invading or normally nonpathogenic organisms. The immune defects observed in HIV seropositive patients are numerous. 

Antilymphocyte antibody acts primarily on the small, long-lived peripheral lymphocytes that circulate between the blood and lymph. With continued administration, "thymus-dependent" lymphocytes from lymphoid follicles are also depleted, as they normally participate in the recirculating pool. As a result of the destruction or inactivation of T cells, an impairment of delayed hypersensitivity and cellular immunity occurs while humoral antibody formation remains relatively intact. ALG and ATG are useful for suppressing certain major compartments (ie, T cells) of the immune system and play a definite role in the management of solid organ and bone marrow transplantation. 

The goal of this chapter is to introduce the immune response processes and mechanisms that occur in different compartments of the eye. This is done to explain the relationship between ocular anatomy and immunogenic inflammation, and to understand the consequences of ocular immune system s malfunction. 

Some adjuvants (endotoxin and poly(A.U)) increase synthesis of proteins. Other adjuvants stimulate different cellular compartments of the immune system (i) mycobacteria, retinol, and poly(A.U) expand T-cell populations (ii) endotoxin and Bordetella pertussis stimulate B cells and, (iii) many adjuvants of bacterial origin mobilize macrophages. Complete Freund s adjuvant causes local formation of granulomas which are rich in macrophages and immunocompetent cells. 

Besides the O2 production by stimulated immune system cells (such as macrophages and neutrophils exposed to oxidative burst during the inflammatory process) 21-25a), the steady release of O2 over time intervals has been observed in human fibroblasts in response to cytokines such as interleukin-la and tumor necrosis factor-a 25). This suggests that continuous O2 production may have a role in the regulation of inflammatory processes (7). Consequently, the role of superoxide dismutases in such compartments may be that of ensuring O2 homeostasis rather than its scavenging. 

In this study, autologous CD34-positive bone marrow stem cells were retrovirally modified to express the functional yc chain gene. T-cells and other hematopoietic cells derived form corrected stem cells were shown to repopulate the hematopoietic cell compartment, and over a period of up to 3 years, 11 treated patients, mostly newborns, displayed a functional and nearly normal immune system. This represents the first reproducible cure of a disease by gene therapy. 

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