Serologic evidence of Yersinia infection in patients with anterior uveitis
D. Wakefield, T. H. Stahlberg, A. Toivanen, K. Granfors and C. Tennant
Laboratory of Ocular Immunology, School of Pathology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Anterior uveitis is a common inflammatory eye disease associated with the
HLA-B27 phenotype. Bacteriologic cofactors have been implicated in the
pathogenesis of several diseases associated with HLA-B27. Using a sensitive
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, we examined the incidence of previous
Yersinia infection in a group of 28 consecutive patients with anterior
uveitis. Twelve patients had a significantly increased antibody response to
Yersinia, 8 of whom were HLA-B27 positive. Eight patients had IgM
antibodies, possibly indicative of recent infection. There were no positive
Yersinia serologic findings in our control group of 28 subjects, 13 of whom
were HLA-B27 positive. A strong association was found between previous
Yersinia infection and the development of anterior uveitis in
HLA-B27-positive and HLA-B27-negative patients.
