Study sheds new light on sight-threatening arthritis in children
3 February 2026
Moorfields Eye Charity is proud to have funded a team led by UCL researchers, in collaboration with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and Moorfields Eye Hospital, who have discovered B cells - alongside T cells - play a major role in the development of arthritis associated eye disease, JIA uveitis, which can cause long-term vision loss in children.
The study was also funded by the Medical Research Foundation, Arthritis UK, Fight for Sight and the Lister Institute for Preventative Medicine. It challenges how the disease has been previously understood, and could open the door to new treatments that help protect children’s sight.
What is juvenile idopathic arthritis (JIA)?
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Juvenile idopathic arthritis is the most common form of arthritis affecting children under the age of 16.
1 in 1000 children in the UK are affected
Approximately 30% of JIA patients also develop uveitis – an inflammatory condition of the eye that is potentially sight-threatening.
Some treatments are available for JIA, however up to a third of affected children still experience some degree of permanent vision loss by the time they reach adulthood.
The team from UCL, Moorfields Eye Hospital and GOSH published a new study in Nature Communications, a scientific journal, that provides a clearer picture of the immune cells involved in JIA-associated uveitis.
“JIA-uveitis can be difficult to detect early, because in some patients, it can cause no obvious symptoms.”
Dr Bethany Jebson (Research Fellow at UCL), first author of the study.
B and T cells are crucial white blood cells in the immune system that protect the body against specific pathogens. Each plays a distinct role in resisting infections and toxins. As an autoimmune condition, JIA-uveitis occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks tissues in the eye.
T cells have been considered the primary driver of the disease’s autoimmune response and subsequent tissue damage, however this new study suggests that B cells also play a role – presenting a new potential treatment target.
Studying the disease effectively and understanding the immune responses that cuase eye inflammation requires analysis of eye samples from children, which are difficult to obtain safely. This difficulty affected how researchers had been able to study JIA-uveitis.
Dr Lizzy Rosser, Associate Professor at the UCL Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology and senior author of the study shared that they were able to obtain rare samples through ‘immense collaborative effort’ with GOSH and Moorfields Eye Hospital. This included samples from children who were undergoing surgery for other complications and preserved historical samples as well.
The team combined the blood data with these samples to explore the diseases more directly. First, they compared samples from children with JIA alone, and children with both arthritis and uveitis. Then they counted and identified various types of immune cells in the eyes of these patients.
The findings mark a major shift in how the uveitis is understood, shedding light on the key mechanisms that lead to vision loss in children with the condition and how the disease develops.
“This allowed us to see which immune cells were present in the inflamed eye and compare this with what we saw in the blood,” Dr Rosser added.
They found that B cells were consistently present in increased numbers in the blood and eye samples from the JIA-uveitis patients. This highlights the role of B cells as additional drivers in the disease pathology of JIA-uveitis.
“This work is a great example of the power of patient-driven research. It uses samples from a new biobank (called ‘CHOIR’) which was inspired by and named by our patients.”
Dr Ameenat Lola Solebo, Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow and Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmologist at GOSH
Additionally, the researchers found that blocking communication between B and T cells in a mouse model of uveitis led to reduced eye inflammation. As noted by Dr Rosser, these results can’t be directly applied to children, but they can help to identify the immune pathways that are important in disease.
“The pathway targeted is already being explored in adults with autoimmune diseases. Following clinical trials, we hope that existing treatments can be adapted or tested for this sight-threatening condition,” she added.
This research has been co-funded through a unique joint funding commitment between the Medical Research Foundation and Moorfields Eye Charity to support 11 research projects all focused on childhood and adolescent eye health, which you can read about here.
Sight conditions in childhood are often associated with reduced independence, educational challenges, isolation, and mental health issues. During childhood, the growing brain and visual system present a crucial opportunity for treatments to have lasting effects.
While research in adult eye health research has seen significant progress, paediatric eye conditions remain severely underfunded. This joint funding commitment – the first of its kind in the UK – aims to increase our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning childhood eye health and disease.
