CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Study objective: To assess the incidence of antibodies towards the proacrosin/acrosin system and their effect upon the sperm acrosomal protein activities in women consulting for infertility. Design: retrospective study. Setting: Basic research laboratory. Patients: Recombinant human proteins derived from proacrosin (Rec-40, Rec-30, Rec-20 and Rec-10) and recombinant human ZP glycoprotein A[1][1] (rec-hZPA). Interventions: Development of an ELISA-Acro to test for antiacrosin antibodies using recombinant proenzyme and truncated acrosin proteins as antigens. Main outcome measure(s): Evaluation of 1) the incidence of antiacrosin antibodies in patients consulting for infertility, 2) the protein regions recognized by the antibodies, 3) the relationship between antiacrosin antibodies and surface antisperm antibodies identified by the Immunobead Binding Test (IBT) and 4) the effect of antiacrosin antibodies upon proacrosin/acrosin ZPA binding activity and acrosin amidase activity. Results: Antiacrosin antibodies were detected in 34 of the 179 (19%) women sera. Detection of AntiSperm Antibodies (ASA) by the IBT resulted in a similar incidence (36/179, 20%), although only 6 of them showed correspondence between both assays; five of these 6 sera were IBT positive IgGs to the sperm head. Antiacrosin antibodies directed towards different protein regions inhibited proacrosin binding activity to rec-hZPA, as well as its activation and acrosin amidase activity in protein sperm extracts. Conclusions: Antiacrosin antibodies are present in sera of women consulting for infertility in IBT positive and negative samples, and affect proacrosin/acrosin activities. [1] Also named as ZP2 (Symbol report: ZP2. Human Genome Organization (HUGO). Gene Nomenclature Committee. April 25, 2005. World Wide Web. URL: http://www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/nomenclature/data/get_data.php?hgnc_id=13188 (September 6, 2005)