The normal eye possesses immunologic privilege. When grafted orthotopically to the eyes of experimental animals, allogeneic corneas enjoy a relatively high level of acceptance, compared with orthotopic grafts of other types of solid tissue. Even corneas grafted into eyes of preimmunized recipients are often not subject to immune rejection. To understand the molecular mechanisms of immune privil...

Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is effective in decelerating disc degeneration in small animals; much remains unknown about this new therapy in larger animals or humans. Fas-ligand (FasL), which is only found in tissues with isolated immune privilege, is expressed in IVDs, particularly in the nucleus pulposus (NP). Maintaining the FasL level is important for IVD function. This ...

PURPOSE Ocular immune privilege promotes tumor growth by hindering the development of innate and adaptive immunity. A prior study showed that ocular tumors expressing the membrane-only form of Fas ligand (FasL) terminate immune privilege, induce vigorous inflammation, undergo rejection, and induce systemic protective immunity. In these previous experiments the tumor cells used were genetically ...

Spermatogenic cells express cell-specific molecules with the potential to be seen as "foreign" by the immune system. Owing to the time difference between their appearance in puberty and the editing of the lymphocyte repertoire around birth, local adaptations of the immune system coined immune privilege are required to confer protection from autoattack. Testicular macrophages (TM) play an import...

Recent studies of human pancreatic cancer challenge the mouse model-derived notion that the pancreas is a site of immune privilege. A heavy infiltration of CD8+ T cells expressing programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and smaller numbers of myeloid cells and regulatory T cells provides rationale for the clinical evaluation of immune checkpoint inhibition as a pancreatic cancer therapeutic strategy.

Despite the existence of ocular immune privilege, immune rejection may be a barrier to successful retinal transplantation. We have examined in mice the extent to which the subretinal space (SRS) is an immune privileged site, and whether retinal pigment epithelium and neuronal retinal tissue have properties of immune privileged tissues. We report that (1) The SRS is an immune privileged site; (2...