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REDUCTION OF FERTILITY IN FEMALE MICE ISO-IMMUNIZED WITH A SUB-CELLULAR SPERM FRACTION

Summary.: Mouse spermatozoa were disrupted in a pressure cell and separated by centrifugation at 1200 g into supernatant and sediment components. Sperm head nuclei were isolated from the sediment by a sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation procedure. Injection of the alumprecipitated supernatant fraction into female mice significantly reduced both litter size (P<0·001) and fertilization rate (P<0·001). Fertility was depressed to a lesser degree by the same antigen when it had not been precipitated. The injection of isolated sperm-head nuclei had no significant effect on litter size or fertilization rate.

Serum antibody against spermatozoa was measured by passive haemagglutination as well as sperm agglutination. Passive haemagglutination titres were significantly higher in mice injected with supernatant preparations than in those receiving whole spermatozoa or sediment fractions. Freezing the supernatant before injection abolished the sperm agglutination titre but did not reduce the degree of impairment of fertility, indicating that sperm agglutinins were not responsible for the induced infertility.