Open AccessShared Antigenic Determinants Between Spermatozoa and Bacteria: An Experimental Study
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of gynecology and reproductive medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2576-2842
DOI - 10.33140/jgrm.03.02.01
Subject(s) - bacteria , microbiology and biotechnology , motility , streptococcus pyogenes , biology , antigen , bacterial adhesin , in vitro , escherichia coli , staphylococcus aureus , sperm , biochemistry , immunology , genetics , gene
Sperm immobilization factor (SIF), the secretory protein of Staphylococcus aureus, is known to cause completeimmobilization, death and morphological alterations in mouse spermatozoa in vitro. However, the present study aims toexplore a newer dimension of SIF i.e., to bind to motile and non-motile bacteria and its ability to induce immobilization ofmotile bacteria in vitro. The results showed that 800µg of SIF caused complete immobilization of motile bacteria, however,death and morphological alterations could not be observed even with 1000µg of SIF. Furthermore, this SIF-mediatedbacterial immobilization was reversed when each of the SIF-binding receptor from mouse spermatozoa and bacteria(Escherichia coli and Streptococcus pyogenes) was incubated with bacteria, thereby, providing an experimental evidenceof similarity between the antigenic determinants present on spermatozoa and bacteria against a common ligand, SIF.