Humoral Autoimmune Response to Rat Male Accessory Glands

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Abstract
The ability to induce antibodies to rat male accessory glands in male and female rats was demonstrated, but a higher response with wider specificity was revealed in female animals. In order to investigate whether this different response may be influenced by sexual hormones we castrated male and female rats at 4 or 30 days after birth. After that we studied the course and specificity of their humoral response to male accessory glands comparing them with that of sham-operated, sex-matched, littermate controls. Orchidectomy in male or oophorectomy in female rats changed neither the course nor specificity of humoral immune response. We conclude, therefore, that hormonal factors do not play any important role in the experimental model under study.