Effect of antisera against eggs and zonae pellucidae on fertilization and development of mouse eggs in vivo and in culture

Abstract

Summary. A single intraperitoneal injection of female mice with rabbit antisera against denuded mouse eggs and isolated zonae pellucidae inhibited fertilization for at least 25\p=n-\30days. Intraperitoneal injection appeared to be more effective and lasted longer than subcutaneous or intramuscular injection but oral administration had no effect. Such a passive immunization of females given after fertilization had no effect on embryonic development or the sex ratio of fetuses. The fertilizing capacity of mouse spermatozoa was suppressed by treatment of the sperm suspension with anti-egg but not with anti-zona serum. Treatment of mouse eggs with these antisera did not affect their development to blastocysts in culture but did inhibit the shedding of the zona pellucida and attachment to the dish.

Infertility in Female Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Alloimmunized with the Rabbit Zona Pellucida Protein ZPB Either as a Purified Recombinant Protein or Expressed by Recombinant Myxoma Virus

“…Antibody binding to zona pellucida in vitro has been shown to interfere with sperm-binding, fertilization, and subsequent implantation [25,26], and this provides one mechanism for antibodyinduced infertility. But in addition, it seems likely that the follicular degeneration in the ovaries was due to antibody and that this follicular degeneration was a major cause of infertility.…”

Immunogenicity of four complementary deoxyribonucleic acid fragments from rabbit zona pellucida 3 and their effects on fertility

“…Infertility in the immunized mice was correlated with the antibody to ZP, and the binding of antiserum to ZP could interfere with sperm binding, fertilization, and subsequent implantation (29,30). This antibody-induced infertility was one mechanism for immunocontraception.…”

The influence of anti-zona and anti-sperm antibodies on sperm--egg interactions

“…Subsequent to these observations more specific antisera have been prepared against cumulus-free mouse ova (Tsunoda, 1977), mechanically isolated mouse zonae pellucidae (Tsunoda & Chang, 1978) and heat-solubilized hamster zonae (Gwatkin, Williams & Carlo, 1977) and shown to be potent inhibitors of fertilization in vitro. Such antisera appear to achieve their inhibitory effects in vitro by preventing both the binding of spermatozoa to specific receptor sites on the zona pellucida and the subsequent penetration of spermatozoa through to the perivitelline space (Aitken & Richardson, 1981).…”

“…Hence passive immunization of hamsters (Oikawa & Yanagimachi, 1975;Tsunoda & Chang, 1976a), mice (Jilek & Pavlok, 1975) and rats (Tsunoda & Chang, 1976a) with either whole antisera, or crude -globulin preparations, raised against aqueous ovarian extracts, has been found to be extremely effective in blocking fertility. In addition, intraperitoneal injections of -globulin preparations directed against cumulus-free mouse eggs or mechanically isolated zonae pellucidae are equally effective at inhibiting fertilization in vivo (Tsunoda & Chang, 1978;Sacco, 1979). One remarkable feature of such passive immunization procedures is the prolonged suppression of fertility observed after the administration of a single injection of antiserum.…”