Immune complex orchitis in vasectomized rabbits.

Abstract

Vasectomy has rapidly become one of the most popular contraceptive methods in many countries. While only a few thousand vasectomies were performed annually during the early 1960's, the figure has now reached nearly one million per year in the United States alone (1). Because vasectomy involves surgical intervention in a healthy individual, the possibility that it may produce longterm local or systemic diseases, even in a small portion of the population, has been the subject of consideration (2, 3). There is an obvious need for a thorough investigation on the safety of this procedure.The present study shows that vasectomized rabbits making an active antibody response to sperm antigens develop an orchitis associated with deposition of rabbit IgG, C3, and sperm antigens--presumably antigen-antibody complexes-in the basement membrane of the seminiferous tubules. These lesions are frequently accompanied by mononuclear cell infiltration and destruction of germinal epithelium. A minority of these rabbits also develop a mild glomerulonephritis accompanied by deposition of immunoglobulin and complement in glomerular structures. Materials and Methods Surgical Procedures. 24 New Zealand White rabbits (Beckens Research Animal Farms,Sanborn, N. Y.) were bilaterally vasectomized, carefully avoiding trauma to the testes or their vessels. Rabbits weighing 3.1-3.6 kg were trial bled, tranquilized with paraldehyde (Elkin-Sinn Inc., Cherry Hill, N. J.), and anesthesized with sodium thiamylal (Surital; Parke-Davis, Baltimore, Md.). After surgical preparation a midventral vertical incision, about 2.5 cm long, was made in the skin of the suprapubic area and with blunt dissection both spermatic cords were located. The components of each cord were reached through a small cut in the cord wall, the vas deferens was isolated, ligated in two sites using silk sutures (Silk 4-0; Ethicon Inc., Somerville, N. J.), and the part between the sutures, approximately 1 cm long, was cut out. The other components of the cord were gently pushed back in place, the small cut in the cord wall and the incision in the skin were sutured using silk. Sham-vasectomies were performed on 20 rabbits weighing 3.1-3.6 kg, which were anesthesized and treated as described above, with the exception that the vas deferens, once

Egress of sperm autoantigen from seminiferous tubules maintains systemic tolerance

“…In cooperation with the effector cytokines and chemokines, the immune complexes could also direct the interstitial inflammation to the boundary of seminiferous tubules, where they disrupt the Sertoli cell barrier and invade the seminiferous tubules to perturb spermatogenesis. This unique sequence of EAO immunopathology has been observed in most experimental and human testicular autoimmune diseases (32,(53)(54)(55)(56). The finding will also explain how Abs can enhance adoptive transfer of postvasectomy EAO (32) and participate in EAO progression (A.G.A.…”

The effect of vasectomy on the testes of inbred Lewis rats

“…The apparent normality of testosterone levels after vasectomy in rats (Mock et al, 1975;Neaves, 1975b;Voglmayr, 1975 ;Kuwahara, 1976) has not encouraged pursuit of hormonal mechanisms of spermatogenic impairment, and more study has been devoted to sperm-specific autoimmunity because of its evident involvement in post-vasectomy hypospermatogenesis in guinea-pigs (Alexander, 1973) and rabbits (Bigazzi et al, 1976).…”

Application of the solid phase C1q and Raji cell radioimmune assays for the detection of circulating immune complexes in glomerulonephritis.

“…Group VII: Other glomerulonephritis (patients [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. In this group were three patients (nos.…”