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The interest in immunopathology rests on the fact that there are a wide variety of disease states which seem to be caused by altered immune mechanisms. These diseases have in common several important facts: no pathogenic microorganism can be recovered from the diseased tissues; auto-immunity or abnormal immune mechanisms are evident; and the diseases respond dramatically to treatment, such as corticosteroid administration, which suppresses the immune state. Moreover, laboratory animals can be immunized by a variety of methods to create diseases somewhat similar to the human conditions.
The eye has been one of many organs subject to extensive investigation dealing with antigenic analysis and also the manner in which immune responses may take place within the eye to cause disease.
The present text is an attempt to gather into one work some of the more important immunopathological investigations done on ocular structures. The first part deals with immune phenomena in