H ‐ Y antigen in human intersexuality

Abstract

The status of H-Y antigen was studied in 10 intersexual cases (three pure gonadal dysgenesis with XY genotype, three Klinefelter's syndrome, two true hermaphroditism with XX genotype, two male hermaphroditism) and in 18 normal adult subjects (nine males and nine females). In all these subjects, fluorescent staining and G-banding on chromosomes from cultured leukocytes confirmed their karyotype. Interestingly, H-Y antigen was found to be negative in XY females with dysgenetic gonads (PGD), while in the remaining intersexual ,states (viz Klinefelter's syndrome, true hermaphroditism and male hermaphroditism), it was found to be positive. These observations confirm that morphological differentiation of testis is controlled by H-Y antigen, and indicate that in the absence of the H-Y antigen, the gonad in pure gonadal dysgenetic patients (46,XY) could not be differentiated into testis. Further, it appears that H-Y antigen in no way influences the secretory function of testis.