A team led by UCL researchers with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and Moorfields Eye Hospital, found B cells—alongside T cells—play a key role in arthritis-related eye disease (JIA uveitis), a condition that can cause long-term vision loss in children. The study challenges how the disease has been previously understood, and could open the door to new treatments that help protect children’s sight.

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common form of arthritis in children under the age of 16, affecting around one in every 1,000 children in the UK. Approximately 30% of patients with JIA also develop uveitis—an inflammatory condition of the eye that is potentially sight-threatening.

Although some treatments are available today for the condition, up to a third of affected children still experience some degree of permanent vision loss by the time they reach adulthood.