Dynamic immunoregulatory processes that sustain immune privilege in the eye

The past 30 years have witnessed enormous insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms that contribute to immune privilege in the eye. Among these is the generation of dynamic immunoregulatory processes that downregulate immune-mediated inflammation in the eye. These processes uniformly employ T regulatory cells that prevent the induction and expression of immune responses that inflict antigen-nonspecific injury to ocular tissues while preserving immune processes that do not adversely affect innocent bystander cells. Although much is known about the inductive phase of ocular T regulatory cells, much remains to be learned about the mechanisms that these cells use to suppress immune-mediated inflammation.