CHARACTERIZATION OF A NATURAL ANTIBODY IN NORMAL GUINEA-PIG SERUM REACTING WITH HOMOLOGOUS SPERMATOZOA

Abstract

It has been known for many years that fresh serum from non-immunized animals causes lysis and immobilization of spermatozoa of some species (Metchnikoff, 1900) and complement is evidently involved in these reactions (Chang, 1947). Complement is usually fixed during antibody-antigen reactions, and later experiments, using complement fixation (Edwards, 1960), immune fluorescence (Beck, Edwards & Young, 1962; Symons, 1967), mixed conglutination (Lachmann, Sell & Spooner, 1965) and mixed antiglobulin (Edwards, 1967), indicated that a complement-fixing antibody might be involved in the antispermatozoal activity of serum. Fresh normal serum also lyses the germinal cells of the testis (Spooner, 1964), and this reaction can be detected by mixed conglutination (Lachmann et al., 1965). In contrast with these observations, Brown, Glynn & Holborow (1963), Pokorna, Vojtiskova, Rychlikova & Chutna (1963) and Mancini (1967) all failed to detect reactions between serum and spermatozoa by immune fluorescence. The present work re-examines the question of the