Immunology of the testicular excurrent ducts

Pöllänen, Pasi; Cooper, Trevor G.

doi:10.1016/0165-0378(94)90019-1

Cited by 78 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 247 publications

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“…The male genital tract is an immune privileged site [9], and seminal plasma is highly immunosuppressive due to high concentrations of PGE 2 [10] in the semen. The seminal plasma is also capable of being recognized by the immune system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autoimmune T cell responses to seminal plasma in chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS)

Batstone

Doble

Gaston

2002

Clinical and Experimental Immunology

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INTRODUCTIONChronic abacterial prostatitis and prostatodynia (now referred to as CPPS types IIIa and IIIb, respectively, in the NIH classification [1]) are poorly understood conditions, which are insufficiently recognized [2]. They are surprisingly common and account for approximately 8% of visits to urologists in the United States. They affect men in all age groups but primarily those in the age group 36-50 years [3]. It has been documented that the impairment to quality of life from chronic prostatitis compares with that due to myocardial infarction, angina and Crohn's disease [4].Controversy exists concerning the aetiology of this condition. Current investigation has focused largely on a microbial or an autoimmune cause, though the two are not mutually exclusive. To investigate a microbial cause, investigators have used PCR to amplify microbial 16S rRNA genes from prostatic biopsies. Kreiger et al. demonstrated microbial 16S rRNA in 77% of the prostates of men with chronic prostatitis but did not investigate a control group [5]. A subsequent paper by Keay et al. found the 16S rRNA in the prostates of 8/9 men with prostate cancer (although this group had previously had trans-rectal biopsies) [6]. Hochreiter [7] found no 16S rRNA gene product in the stored prostates of 18 men whose prostates had been preserved at the time of organ donation and in whom there was no information on whether they had any prostatitis symptoms ante-mortem. In a subsequent study Kreiger found the 16S rRNA gene product in 20% of 107 patients with prostate cancer as compared to 46% of 170 men with chronic prostatitis. The median age of the men with prostate cancer was 64 and the median age of the men with prostatitis was 38 [8]. Essentially it is difficult to obtain aged matched controls to undergo a prostatic biopsy.The autoimmune hypothesis suggests that types IIIa and IIIb prostatitis (CPPS) are caused by autoimmune mediated injury to the genital tract (including the prostate), which is precipitated by genitourinary inflammatory events such as urinary tract infection (UTI), acute bacterial prostatitis, urethritis and repetitive trauma. The male genital tract is an immune privileged site [9], and seminal plasma is highly immunosuppressive due to high concentrations of PGE 2 [10] in the semen. The seminal plasma is also capable of being recognized by the immune system. Halpern first described seminal plasma allergy in 1967 [11] in a woman who experienced postcoital anaphylaxis. Other authors have reported similar findings and suggested that the allergic component was a protein(s) in the range of 20-40 KD [12,13]. An antigen does not need to be produced by the prostate for the prostate to be affected as intraprostatic spermatozoa have been found on postmortem analysis [14] mainly in the peripheral zone.The finding of increased levels of IgA and IgG in the expressed prostatic secretion of patients with abacterial prostatitis, compared to controls, supports an autoimmune aetiology for this condition, since this Ig was not specific for know...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autoimmune T cell responses to seminal plasma in chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS)

Batstone

Doble

Gaston

2002

Clinical and Experimental Immunology

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“…They provide the highly specialized milieus required for spermatogenesis and sperm maturation [Sharpe, 1994;Meyer et al, 1996], they protect testicular germ cells and maturing spermatozoa from mutagenic or otherwise harmful substances [Schulze, 1992;Hinton et al, , 1996, and, finally, they shield potent testicular and epididymal sperm antigens from the immune system. The breakdown of blood-tissue barriers in the testis and excurrent duct system results in the production of agglutinating or immobilizing antisperm antibodies [Hargreave et al, 1982;von Boehmer, 1988;Pöllänen and Cooper, 1994;Saari et al, 1996;Flickinger et al, 1998] which are known to significantly interfere with male fertility [Rumke et al, 1974;Hargreave et al, 1982;Herr et al, 1989;Handley et al, 1991;Francavilla et al, 1992;Flickinger et al, 1993;Hooper et al, 1995]. Thus, the blood-epididymis barrier is no less important than the blood-testis barrier and yet has received very little attention to date [Howards et al, 1976;Hoffer and Hinton, 1984;Agarwal and Hoffer, 1989].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blood-Tissue Barriers in the Male Reproductive Tract of the Dog: A Morphological Study Using Lanthanum Nitrate as an Electron-Opaque Tracer

Mann

Frieß

Stoffel³

2003

Cells Tissues Organs

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Blood-tissue barriers preventing an uncontrolled exchange of larger molecules between adjacent but metabolically separate compartments have been demonstrated in various organs. One prominent example is the blood-testis barrier which has been investigated in a number of species. A key function of this barrier is to shield developing germ cells from the immune system in order to avoid autoimmune reactions. This requirement also applies to the male excurrent duct system. Yet, very few investigations have addressed the morphology of the blood-epididymal barrier. The goal of the present study, therefore, was to revisit the blood-testis barrier in the dog and to identify the structures constituting the blood-epididymal barrier in this species. Lanthanum nitrate was used as a tracer for electron microscopy. In the testis, lanthanum had free access to the intercellular space of the seminiferous epithelium up to the Sertoli cell junctions. Similarly, epithelial tight junctions were found to represent the permeability barrier in the epididymis. The present study highlights species differences with respect to the blood-testis barrier and extends the knowledge of the blood-epididymal barrier by providing morphofunctional data in this domestic species.

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“…Immune cells including macrophages, mast cells and lymphocytes are not only encountered in the testisthey are also regular components of the interstitial and peritubular tissue of the epididymis and excurrent ductal system (Nistal et al 1984;El-Demiry et al 1985;Nashan et al 1989;Pöllänen and Cooper 1994). In contrast to the seminiferous tubules, however, lymphocytes are also physiologically present within the epithelium of the adult rete testis, epididymis and vas deferens, most of them expressing T cell markers.…”

Section: Ii167 Immunobiology and Pathology Of The Excurrent Ductsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Autoantigenicity of the basal compartment of the seminiferous epithelium was demonstrated in rats (Yule et al 1988;Saari et al 1996). Moreover, barrier functions are less extensive along the rete testis and excurrent ducts (Pöllänen and Cooper 1994).…”

Section: Ii163 Blood-testis Barriermentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Moreover, basal cells of the epithelium have been shown to express macrophage-related antigens, and defective spermatozoa can be phagocytosed by epithelial cells (Pöllä-nen and Cooper 1994). On the other hand, lymphocytemediated cytotoxicity is unlikely to occur under physiological conditions considering that testicular germ cells as well as epididymal spermatozoa lack class I MHC molecules (Pöllänen and Cooper 1994). Thus, it has been suggested that intraepithelial CD8 + T cells exert regulatory functions maintaining the immunologically privileged status of the region (Yakirevich et al 2002).…”

Section: Ii167 Immunobiology and Pathology Of The Excurrent Ductsmentioning

confidence: 98%

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