Anti-retinal antibodies as an etiopathogenetic factor and markers of retinal damage in diseases of the posterior segment of the eye

Retinal autoimmunity has been recently thoroughly investigated. The presence of anti- retinal antibodies in sera from patients with retinal damage due to cancer-associated retinopathy, melanoma-associated retinopathy, presumed non-paraneoplastic autoimmune retinopathy, uveitis, age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, idiopathic retinopathies, proliferative vitreoretinopathies as well as in wide range of the systemic autoimmune diseases without visual symptoms has been documented. There is still debate whether anti-retinal antibodies are directly involved in the etiopathogenesis of retinal damage or represent only an epiphenomenon related to the tissue damage due to some other aetiology. The authors review the current literature regarding the occurrence and potential significance of anti-retinal antibodies in etiopathogenesis and diagnosis of the posterior segment eye diseases.