Autoimmune uveitis in Behçet's disease and Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease differ in tissue immune infiltration and T cell clonality

Uveitis in BD and VKHD can show similar clinical manifestations, but the underlying immunopathogenesis remains unclear. To understand immune landscapes in inflammatory eye tissues, we performed single-cell RNA paired with T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing of immune cell infiltrates in aqueous humour from six patients with BD (N = 3) and VKHD (N = 3) uveitis patients.

Single-cell analyses of ocular tissues reveal distinct landscapes of immune cell infiltration and T cell clonal expansions between VKHD and BD uveitis. Preferential involvements of pro-inflammatory CD4+ Th1 cells in VKHD and cytotoxic CD8+ T cells in BD suggest a difference in disease immunopathogenesis and can guide precision disease management.