Infertility in Female Rabbits Isoimmunized with Subcellular Sperm Fractions

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Abstract
Female rabbits of proven fertility were immunized with whole sperm, 98,000 .times. g supernatant and the insoluble pellet of MgCl2 disrupted rabbit sperm to produce high circulating antibody titers. Following mating, ova were recovered from the 3 groups of isoimmunized females. Less than 5% of these ova had cleaved compared to 96% among ova from control (Freund''s adjuvant-saline injected) females. Spermatozoa were associated with ova recovered from all groups of females, but in reduced numbers among those from immunized females compared to controls. The corona radiata layer was intact on all ova from the 3 groups of immunized but not control females. The cumulus layer was partially or completely intact on most of these uncleaved ova. Sera of all infertile immunized females contained sperm agglutinating, sperm immobilizing and immunodiffusion positive action. These sera, when diffused against sperm extract, produced a minimum of 2 precipitin bands, at least 1 of which was common to all 3 groups of animals. The maximum number of distinct bands was 5. Isoimmunization of female rabbits with whole sperm, 98,000 .times. g supernatant and pellet to high circulating antibody levels results in virtually complete infertility. In view of this ''antifertility vaccine'' action of the soluble sperm fraction, 1 or more specific sperm antifertility antigens should be readily obtained in purified form by appropriate fractionation procedures and using antifertility vaccine action as a bioassay.