Effects of experimentally generated bull antisperm antibodies on in vitro fertilization

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that bull antisperm antibodies have the capacity to interfere with fertilization, antisperm antibodies were generated in three 13-mo-old Holstein bulls by auto-immunizing each bull with sperm three times. All bulls produced serum antisperm IgG1 and IgG2 antibodies. No serum antisperm IgA nor seminal plasma antisperm antibodies of any isotype could be detected by ELISA. Western blots were performed with immunopurified IgG1 and IgG2 from pre- and post-immunization sera from one test bull. Both post- immunization IgG1 and IgG2 recognized a 45-kDa sperm antigen. Serum samples from a normal bull stud population tested by ELISA had significantly higher levels of antisperm antibodies than did heifers. The bull stud serum samples giving the highest ELISA values differed from those of the immunized bulls in that their antisperm antibodies were of the IgM isotype only. Bull sperm were incubated with serum from the immunized and control bulls, then added to bovine oocytes in vitro. Incubation of sperm with post-immunization serum reduced in vitro fertilization rates (p < 0.01). This study demonstrated that antisperm IgG1 and IgG2 generated by sperm auto-immunizations reduced fertility in vitro, and therefore naturally occurring antisperm antibodies may affect fertility in bulls.