The antigen-bearing eye and the spleen are indispensable in maintaining anterior chamber-associated immune deviation.

PURPOSE To investigate the role of the eye and the spleen in maintaining suppression of delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) after anterior chamber (AC) inoculation of allogeneic splenocytes. METHODS Suppression of DTH response was tested in BALB/c mice after AC inoculation of allogeneic B10.D2 splenocytes. Seven days after AC injection, the antigen-inoculated eyes were enucleated or the spleens were removed. After enculeation or splenectomy at different time intervals, DTH responses in groups of the BALB/c mice were examined. Spleen components obtained from BALB/c mice that had been primed by B10.D2 splenocytes in the AC 7 days earlier were transferred intravenously to groups of naive syngeneic acceptors. At various intervals after adoptive transfer, variations of DTH responses were tested. RESULTS Inoculation of B10.D2 splenocytes to the AC of BALB/c mice induced antigen-specific suppression of DTH. Either enucleation of the antigen-inoculated eyes or splenectomy weakened the DTH-suppressive effect within 5 weeks and abolished it within 9 weeks, whereas the mice retaining both antigen-inoculated eyes and spleens maintained longstanding DTH suppression. Adoptive transfer of spleen components to syngeneic acceptors demonstrated DTH suppression for only 3 weeks. CONCLUSIONS The antigen-inoculated eye and spleen are required for long-standing suppression of DTH after AC inoculation of allogeneic splenocytes.