AIRE and posterior uveitis: The development of the uveitic process in mice lacking Aire is directly dependent on the response to the retina-specific antigen Irbp (42, 43), whose expression within the thymus maps to mTECs, where it is induced in an Aire-dependent manner, and Irbp -deficient thymus transplantation into athymic nude mice is sufficient to induce posterior uveitis (42, 43).