H-Y Antigen: Behavior and Function

Abstract

The factors are reviewed which affect the expression of H-Y antigen, a cell surface component that has been extensively analyzed in mice but which may be ubiquitous in all vertebrates. The phylogenetic stability of this antigen and its association with the Y chromosome indicate an important role in primary sex determination.

Increased Prevalence of Autoimmune Phenomena and Greater Risk for Alloreactivity in Female Heart Transplant Recipients

“…This process is believed to occur when male grafts are transplanted into female recipients (sex mismatch), in which antigenicity coded for by the Y chromosome in male grafts provokes an immune response to reject the graft in the female recipient. 28,29 Although female recipients demonstrated increased early mortality in association with increased rejection rates, alloreactivity, and fatal infections, they had a significantly lower incidence of TCAD. Because enhanced alloreactivity in female recipients has also been described by other investigators, 14,15 and development of alloreactivity and acute rejection …”

Sex determination in birds: progeny of nondisjunction canaries of Durham (1926)

“…The structural loci for H-W and H-Y antigens in birds and mammals are similar in being borne by the smaller sex chromosome (Gilmour, 1966;Silvers & Wachtel, 1977;McCarrey, Abplanalp & Abbott, 1981). But genetic evidence presented here suggests an evolutionary discontinuity between W and Y chromosomes in sex determination of birds and mammals who last shared a common ancestor 320 million years ago.…”

“…(2) The Y (mammals) or W (birds) chromosome controls sex differentiation by causing early and rapid growth of primitive testicular tissue in the neutral gonad (Mittwoch, 1983). (3) Silvers & Wachtel (1977) attribute a primary sex-determining role to the H-Y antigen that was found to be associated invariably with the heterogametic sex in amphibians, birds and mammals.…”

Immunological behavior of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) as a minor histocomaptibility antigen with a special reference to skin isograft and specific regulation of local graft-versus-host reaction (GvHR)

“…The present study was therefore undertaken to determine the behavior of EGFP skin isografts of different MHC backgrounds. One of the unique features of minor histocompatibility antigens, such as H-Y antigen, is the interstrain variation in responsiveness of females in different MHC [26,27]. Indeed, female mice with H-2b responder strains reject primary male skin isografts, whereas female mice of low-responder strains usually do not reject primary male skin.…”