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IMMUNOFLUORESCENT STUDIES ON MAMMALIAN SPERMATOZOA: ANTIGENIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN, BULL AND RABBIT SPERMATOZOA

Summary.: Human sera, which had revealed a number of sperm antibodies in indirect immunofluorescence tests with human spermatozoa, were tested against bull and rabbit spermatozoa. Similar staining patterns were found, and the slightly different extension of the various structures in these spermatozoa provided strong supporting evidence for the previous assumption that different antibodies react with (1) the anterior part of the acrosome, (2) the equatorial segment, (3) the postnuclear cap, and (4) the tail. A close antigenic relationship between the three species was found for the equatorial antigen and the antigen in the postnuclear cap. However, in absorption experiments, the commonly occurring antibody staining the anterior part of the acrosome in heterologous spermatozoa appeared to be different from that responsible for such staining in human spermatozoa. A similar phenomenon seemed to underlie the tail reactions of homologous and heterologous spermatozoa.