STUDIES ON IMMUNOGENICITY OF PROTAMINES IN HUMANS AND EXPERIMENTAL-ANIMALS BY MEANS OF A MICRO-COMPLEMENT FIXATION-TEST

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 33  (2) , 252-260
Abstract
A complement fixation study was undertaken with human, monkey and rabbit sera, using purified sperm nuclear basic proteins as antigens. Protamines, the sperm-specific basic nuclear proteins, may have been immunogenic in mammalians. Antibodies detected in the indirect immunofluorescence test on human swollen sperm heads in sera from infertile and vasectomized men, were directed primarily against human protamines. Differences in the immunization site and/or in the configuration of the immunizing protamine, may have led to the formation of antibodies directed against different antigenic determinants. Autoimmunity to protamines, following vasectomy or in infertile men, was accompanied by the formation of antibodies cross-reacting with common antigenic determinants present in protamines of other species. Induction of immunity to protamines by means of immunization with protamines-RNA complexes (in rabbits), or protamine-insulin complexes (in humans), led to the formation of antibodies reacting more specifically with the immunizing protamine, showing only slight cross-reaction with other protamines. The histone-like fraction present in mature human spermatozoa was composed mainly of histone fraction H2B.

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