Supporting the hypothesis that Th17 lymphocytes may be responsible for a dysfunctional local immune response in the chronically inflamed OCP conjunctiva, several studies have shown that IL-17-producing-Th17 cells play a critical pathogenic role in autoimmunity, promoting organ-specific damage in several autoimmune diseases such as uveitis, Sjögren’s, MS, IBD, RA, etc [10,34-40]. The gene discussed is IL17A; the disease is rheumatoid arthritis.