Gene therapy in the treatment of ocular inflammation.

Gene therapy may become a powerful therapeutic modality in the treatment of both ocular inflammatory disease and as a means of preventing rejection following tissue transplantation. By directly introducing into ocular cells genes that encode proteins capable of down-regulating the immune response, gene therapy has potential for both therapy and as a method for studying mechanisms of disease. While marked and rapid advances in the study of gene therapy have been realized, technical questions regarding the appropriate vector or the choice of efficacious immunomodulatory protein still remain.