Novel immunoregulatory roles for CRISP proteins within the epididymis.

CARVAJAL G; BRUKMAN NG; WEIGEL MUÑOZ M; BATTISTONE MA; LUSTIG L; BRETON S; CUASNICÚ PS

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Anual Conjunta SAIC; 2016

SAIC

RESÚMENES DE LAS COMUNICACIONES pag. 261PRESENTACION DE POSTERS SAIC V /SAIC POSTER PRESENTATION VReproducción I/ Reproduction I578 (311) NOVEL IMMUNOREGULATORY ROLES FOR CRISPPROTEINS WITHIN THE EPIDIDYMISGuillermo Carvajal1, Nicolás Brukman1, Mariana WeigelMuñoz1, Agustina Battistone3, Sylvie Breton3, Livia Lustig2,Patricia Cuasnicú1,1 Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, CONICET,Argentina. 2 Inbiomed, UBA-CONICET, Facultad de Medicinia,Argentina. 3 Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston,United State of America.Epididymal CRISP1 and CRISP4 (Cysteine-Rich SecretoryProteins) associate with sperm during maturation and participatein different stages of fertilization. Whereas single knockout (KO)males for these molecules exhibit in vitro sperm fertilizing defectsand normal fertility, the absence of both proteins (doubleKO, DKO) significantly affects both in vitro fertilization and malefertility, suggesting the existence of compensatory mechanismsbetween these proteins. Based on this, in the present work weinvestigated the mechanisms underlining the subfertility of DKO.Examination of the reproductive organs showed that 15 out of 45DKO males had bigger caput epididymides accompanied by biggertestes. Histological studies of the epididymis of these malesrevealed the presence of desquamation of the epithelium, cytoplasmicvacuolation and abnormal presence of immune cells (i.e.macrophages, lymphocytes) in the interstitium and lumen mainlyin the proximal regions, and damaged or no sperm in the cauda.Immunofluorescence experiments using specific markers for differentepididymal epithelial cells revealed the damage and evenabsence of principal cells in the proximal regions of these mice. Nosigns of inflammation were observed in those animals with normalepididymal caput and testicular size, indicating the existence of twosubgroups among the DKO mice. Interestingly, whereas the pres -ence of the epididymal immune response positively correlated withlower sperm viability and fertility levels (p*