Chapter 9 - Autoimmune Reproductive Diseases

Abstract

The reproductive system may also come under immunologic attack. This is especially the case for autoantigens that are not normally synthesized until puberty, when hormonal changes and central tolerance mediated by the thymus wanes. Thus in males, the developing sperm are normally protected from autoimmune attack by the blood-testes barrier. This barrier may be broken experimentally by the use of testicular vaccines or be secondary to damage caused by trauma or testicular infections. Likewise, in females, an autoimmune oophoritis may also develop, resulting in premature infertility. On occasion, autoimmune responses to sex hormones may result in atopic dermatitis. A disease that may have a significant impact on the dairy industry is autoallergy to milk proteins that develops in cows toward the end of lactation. We can, however, make practical use of these autoimmune responses. Thus it is possible to induce immune contraception by vaccinating animals against gonadotropin-releasing hormone or against zona pellucida antigens. Likewise, it is possible to use these immune responses to manipulate hormone levels to enhance fecundity in sheep.