Title: INHIBITION OF FERTILIZATION IN VITRO BY TREATMENT OF RABBIT SPERMATOZOA WITH UNIVALENT ISOANTIBODY
Abstract: Isoimmunization of the female with semen results in reduced fertility in a number of species, notably guinea-pigs (Katsh, 1959; Isojima, Graham & Graham, 1959; Otani, Behrman, Porter & Nakayama, 1963), mice (McLaren, 1964; Edwards, 1964), rabbits (Menge, 1968, 1970; Bell, 1969) and cattle (Menge, 1967, 1969). Attempts to define the site and mechanism of such immunological inhibition of fertility using univalent (Fab, non-agglutinating, non-immobilizing) antisperm antibody fragments showed that cervical passage of spermatozoa (Metz & Anika, 1970) and one or more additional processes are vulnerable to antibody inhibition (Metz, 1972, 1973). The latter evidently includes an event(s) at the normal time and site of sperm-egg interaction because antibody-pretreated capacitated spermatozoa fail to produce conception following intratubal insemination (Metz, 1973). The intratubal insemination procedure is inherently deficient in quantitative precision, as, for example, when attempting to assess the sperm concentration and composition of the medium in the vicinity of the egg.